Odisha Inaugurates its First Seawater Desalination Plant
Odisha has launched its first seawater desalination plant in Ganjam district, a project aimed at tackling drinking water scarcity in coastal communities. Developed by Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL) with technology from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, the plant will use reverse osmosis to produce 4 lakh litres of freshwater daily. The facility will benefit around 7,000 residents of nearby villages who previously struggled with saline groundwater, providing a sustainable and innovative solution to their water needs.
Unpacked:
Ganjam and other coastal blocks in Odisha face chronic salinity intrusion in aquifers, making conventional groundwater unfit for drinking in many villages. The state’s first seawater desalination plant aims to directly address this gap by providing treated potable water where groundwater is saline, complementing piped supply and surface sources in the region.
The plant uses Bhabha Atomic Research Centre’s reverse osmosis (RO) technology to convert seawater to freshwater, a mature, energy-efficient option compared to thermal methods for this scale. BARC has also deployed hybrid systems (SWRO with MED‑TVC) at OSCOM to meet both industrial and community needs, indicating institutional experience and reliability in Odisha’s context.
Desalination can cause marine intake impacts, brine discharge that raises local salinity and reduces oxygen, and chemical pollution from pretreatment, affecting marine life. Mitigations include fine intake screens or subsurface intakes, diffusers for brine to enhance mixing, rigorous chemical management, and energy-efficient operations to cut emissions, practices recommended across studies.
The plant is designed to produce 400,000 liters/day, serving about 7,000 nearby residents and supplying OSCOM employees and operations. BARC indicates a larger OSCOM desalination setup of 5 MLD supports industrial process water and community drinking needs, suggesting multiple beneficiary streams and potential scalability beyond the initial 0.4 MLD allocation for villages.