ISLAMABAD, Oct 7: The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) has suggested the use of nuclear seawater desalination technology to overcome the growing shortage of water for industrial, agricultural and domestic use in the country.

Seawater desalination is considered to be a viable option especially for Karachi and the coastal belt as it was being successfully used in Japan and Kazakhstan for many years.

Official sources told Dawn here on Thursday that in view of the water shortage in Karachi, the government had accepted a PAEC proposal to set up a Nuclear Desalination Demonstration Plant (NDDP) having a 4,800 m3/d (1.267 million US Gallons per day) capacity.

The plant would initially cost Rs590 million which would be mainly borne by the Sindh government for getting the desalination plant designed and manufactured at Karachi by hiring the services of foreign consultants.

The main objective of the project is to acquire the emerging technology of using nuclear energy for desalination of seawater/ brackish water and to attain an adequate know-how and experience in the design, manufacturing, operation and maintenance of a desalination plant which can be used in the installation of big thermal desalination plants in the future.

The PAEC is of the view that smaller units will also be needed as the development of coastal belt has started with the coastal highway. So by acquiring the Multi-Effect Distillation (MED) technology for desalination, expertise in this technology will be developed which can be used in future to locally provide a highly dependable source of portable water to Karachi in particular and other parts along the coastal belt in general.

The PAEC believes that once the plant starts operation, there is a large scope for export of desalination equipment/plants to the neighbouring countries. It is said that the water demand would increase by manifold in the coming decades and won't be addressed by relying on limited and unreliable ground resources. Karachi alone is facing a shortfall of about 175 millions gallons per day (MGD).

The PAEC officials are of the view that nuclear desalination is a viable option that can play a significant role in bridging the gap between the supply and demand of drinking water across Pakistan.

The Multi-Effect Distillation (MED) plant has been selected for desalination considering the extraction steam conditions to be used as thermal energy resource for desalination and due to significant advantages of MED process over other desalination processes.