The market for desalination in India is expected to grow by 19% a year to 2019 as government and industry seek to address escalating water demand and diminishing conventional resources according to market researcher TechSci Research.
TechSci has calculated that India’s the government and industry players “are gradually shifting their focus towards desalination technology” driven by “growing government emphasis on economic development and rising contribution of the manufacturing sector.” This, according to TechSci’s report, India desalination plant market forecast and opportunities, 2019, will boost India’s desalination capacity to a compound annual growth rate of some 19%, during 2014-19.
The researcher projected India’s demand for fresh water to hit 52 billion m³ by 2025 while water availability was to dip from 1,545 m³ per person to about 1,500 m³ per person over the same period.
TechSci said despite significant growth in desalination in India over the past ten years desalination was a “nascent technology with only 183 operational plants.” The capacity is largely concentrated in the western and southern states of the country the researcher said.
India’s desalination plant market is dominated by the industrial sector, in terms of number of plants installed with the power industry accounting for about 18% of the total number in 2013 followed by the municipal sector. Thermal power plants consumed nearly 88% of water intensive industrial demand.
The report also highlighted key industry activity including Hyflux’s agreement with Hitachi Group to install a desalination plant at Dahej in Gujarat. “The market, largely dominated by multinational companies, has witnessed considerable contribution from domestic desalination plant installers in the last few years. Multinational companies operating in the India desalination plant market are largely from Spain, France, Israel, Singapore and the US,” said TechSci research director with Karan Chechi.