India is among few of the critically water stressed countries across the globe. With growing government emphasis on economic development and rising contribution of the manufacturing sector in GDP, freshwater demand in India for use in industrial applications is projected to increase further to about 52 BCM by 2025. Meanwhile, per capita water availability in the country is projected to decrease from 1,545 cubic meters in 2011 to about 1,500 cubic meters in 2025. Consequently, the government as well as industry players are gradually shifting their focus towards desalination technology, which can offer a sustainable and economical alternative to conventional water treatment technologies. Growth in the number and installed capacity of desalination plants in the country during the last decade, is indicative of growing reliability on this technology to bridge fresh water demand supply gap in the country.
Desalination is still a nascent technology in India with only 183 operational plants. Technology adoption is largely concentrated in the Western and Southern states of the country. However, with recent initiative by state and central governments coupled with healthy response from industrial off-takers, the India desalination plant market is expected to exhibit strong growth during the forecast period.
According to a recently published TechSci Research report, “India Desalination Plant Market Forecast & Opportunities, 2019”, the India desalination plant market is projected to register a CAGR of around 19%, in terms of installed capacity, during 2014-19. The India desalination plant market is dominated by the industrial sector, in terms of number of plants installed, followed by the municipal sector. Within the industrial sector, power industries alone accounted for about 18% of the total market share in 2013, in terms of the number of plants installations. In contrast, the municipal sector dominates the market in terms of total installed capacity. Thermal power plants account for 87.9% of the water consumption, when compared with water intensive industries in India. The report also highlights key industry activities such as 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. Desalination plant installers in India are developing low cost solutions as per the off-taker’s requirement, which is expected to result in reverse innovation in the desalination plant installation technology.” said Mr. Karan Chechi, Research Director with TechSci Research.