14 DAY TRIAL // A state-run Indian company has announced its intentions of using waste water byproducts, coming from the hydrogen fuel cell (HFC) production industry, to bottle and sell pure water, in an attempt to address the ever-increasing difficulties that the country faces in supplying its population with enough water.
Currently, India suffers greatly from lack of pure water and it's estimated that some 1,500 people die from water-transmitted diseases each day. The Bharat company says that some 1 million metric tons of pure water could be bottled and distributed yearly throughout the nation.
The requirements are fairly reduced – the hydrogen fuel cell industry must provide it with the water resulted from approximately 1,000 MW of energy obtained from hydrogen. The government already announced that the water thus obtained would have an accessible price, so that even the poorest citizens could afford to buy it.
Officials announced that plans for the construction of a 1,000 MW HFC production plant, scheduled to be finished in 3 to 5 years, depending on the economic situation of the country. This type of measures is exactly what the country needs, although, admittedly, at a much larger scale. Doctors have already announced that they are overwhelmed by the current public health situation and that there is little they can do to treat such large numbers of patients, if their water sources are unclean.
Critics to this initiative argue that such an endeavor will speed up water consumption two-fold, considering that for each liter of pure water obtained, two liters of waste water are used. Also, large amounts of petroleum are to be used for the making of sufficient amounts of bottles to supply the entire country. Thus far, a final decision on the matter has yet to be reached, with both supporters and opponents to the idea still discussing details.