Seawater desalination unit brings relief to drought-prone Tamil Nadu village

The Ministry of Science and Technology on Saturday informed that seawater desalination through “solar thermal forward osmosis” has brought relief to a drought-prone village in Tamil Nadu.

Narippaiyur, a village in Ramanathapuram District, a drought-prone area situated in the South-East corner of Tamil Nadu will benefit from 20,000 litres per day of freshwater produced from the seawater – thanks to the solar thermal Forward Osmosis (FO) sea-water desalination system installed in the place.

As per the official release by the ministry, the customized demand-driven convergent water solution through FO will supply two litres of good quality drinking water per person per day for 10,000 people in the village, successfully overcoming a major drinking water shortage in the village.

Tamil Nadu IIT Madras in collaboration with Empereal – KGDS Renewable Energy has successfully established and demonstrated this system to address prevalent and emerging water challenges in mission mode in the village.