Opting for water desalination plants

More and more countries round the world are opting for water desalination plants as a sustainable solution to their needs of water supply. The desalination plants work by separating salt from sea water and then supplying the same to various users to be used just like fresh water. There are desalination plants in Iraq, Australia, in the Gulf countries and in the USA. In neighbouring India, two desalination plants are already operating near the city of Chennai and meeting substantially its water needs. Eighteen desalination plants exist along the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia and these have helped in the greening of the once desert country and in increasing its agricultural output from irrigation. Bangladesh, too, needs to tread in the same path without wasting time as a longer-term solution to its growing problem of fresh water scarcity. However, the establishment of large desalination plants and their operation are not cheap. Even then, the costs must not be considered so high that would be purported to proving that such plants are not feasible for Bangladesh. Besides, the costs of such plants and their operational technologies, are also noted to be falling. In this situation, the policy-planners in Bangladesh will need to focus their attention and energies on getting such plants started here at the earliest to cater to the country's water security on a lasting basis. Among the bright ideas spelt out in seminars held the other day to mark the observance of the World Water Day, the establishment of water desalination plants did also rightly draw attention of a number of participants. Munira Hossein Gulshan, Dhaka.