Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday batted for cost-effective desalination initiatives to fulfill the country's drinking water needs and favoured more research to address the issue.
Addressing the silver jubilee celebrations of the National Institute of Ocean Technology here, he lauded the institution for its sustained efforts in six key areas of blue economy including fisheries and aquaculture, renewable ocean energy, offshore hydrocarbons, and marine biotechnology.
These were all very important for the progress of the nation, the Vice President said.
The blue economy will aid in achieving the 14th of UN sustainable development goals, which is "life below water".
It states "conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development," he said.
There is a need to give a strong thrust to research activities and innovation in the areas of ocean energy, marine biology and biotechnology for the nation to become a leader in those sectors and NIOT can be a forerunner for achieving the milestone, he said.
On NIOT's technologies for societal applications like the desalination plants, he said, "I am sure in the coming days, this process of desalination will get further impetus because I am worried that we may face water problem and water challenges."
Pointing to indications from some people that "there may be water wars across the globe," he said and added "we must try to utilise available sea water and for that you need to do more and more research."
Naidu further said "you already found some solutions but it has to be cost-effective because converting saline water to potable water; sweet water is a very good thing that will solve the the problem to maximum possible extent but the question is at what cost and that is the issue."
Noting that scientific research was on around the world on this issue, he said some of the countries that he visited depended only on desalination plants for its water needs.
"We are a huge country with 130 crore population and our requirement is also huge; we have to focus our attention on future challenges along with present challenges."
Stating the nation has a "galloping population," he said "...we are not focusing enough attention on population planning; family planning and population planning."
In his characteristic witty style, he said this issue was a "little sensitive," for politicians who may feel that it could lead to "political family planning," for them apparently referring to likelihood of political implications.
He indicated they may not feel so, since the initiative was only for the people's welfare since resources like land and water were just the same while population was on the rise alongside challenges including climate change.
Hence, planning of families and the population gains significance to take care of the future, he said.
Naidu launched the "Coastal Flood Warning System (CFLOWS-Chennai) App," for Chennai developed by the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
Earlier, he viewed exhibits on the cutting edge and socially relevant technologies developed by NIOT and released a special postal cover to mark its silver jubilee.
The vice president gave away awards to student winners of competitions conducted by the institution to mark NIOT's silver jubilee.
Union Minister for Science and Technology, Harsh Vardhan, Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Rajeevan participated.
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