Mumbai’s first-ever desalination plant has got many people excited—urban policy wonks about tapping into the seawater that surrounds the city, the Maharashtra government about scoring yet another first, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) about going beyond rain-fed reservoirs in the city and dams hundreds of kilometres away, and the Israeli company about the Rs 3,900 crore project at Manori.

To be situated near a village across the Manori Creek, on the northwestern edge of Mumbai, the proposed desalination plant that Israel’s IDE Technologies will build will use reverse osmosis technology and operate for 20 years and will add 200 million litres a day (MLD) to Mumbai’s water supply. Spread over 12 acres in a sensitive coastal zone, the project was approved by the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority on April 7 and received the Coastal Regulation Zone clearance of the Union environment ministry on April 28 this year.

On paper, both the agencies have listed the safeguards to be followed, such as protecting mangroves and fishing livelihoods of local residents and the disposal of concentrated brine. On the ground, it is anybody’s guess how these will play out, especially as the plans are to increase the plant’s capacity to 400 MLD—a 100 per cent increase from the capacity cleared now. Another desalination plant of 200 MLD capacity has been planned in Versova.

In Manori, locals have been protesting hard against the imminent destruction to ecology and their lives. Already, 971 trees have........

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