Carlsberg Group, a Denmark-based multination brewer, announced that it has joined hands with Desolenator, a water purification technology provider, to provide clean drinking water for a town with a population of 4,000 in Sunderbans, West Bengal.

Desolenator’s solar-powered water purification system utilizes thermal and electrical energy to distill water, which can create clean water from the most complex sources.

Sunderbans, home to 4.7 million people, is at a critical point as the area is surrounded by salt water and is suffering from the immediate consequences of rising sea levels. The situation became worse in 2020 after cyclone Amphan and COVID-19.

The company said that the sustainable desalination project would be completed in mid-2021. It would provide around 20,000 liters of clean drinking water daily utilizing the sun, it added.

According to Carlsberg Group, the project is a part of its Together Towards ZERO sustainability program, which aims to eliminate water waste across its breweries by 2030 and safeguard shared water resources in high-risk areas.

In its press statement, the company stated that a multidisciplinary partnership has been forged with local non-government organizations (NGOs) like the Sundarban Social Development Center (SSDC) and WaterAid, and leading researchers of the U.K.’s Strathclyde University, to develop a community-led distribution model. The Netherlands Enterprise Agency provided the grant to design the distribution model, which will employ local women entrepreneurs, it added.

“In the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, high levels of salinity make the water unfit for human consumption, placing a huge burden on families. This desalination facility is designed to handle such variations and by the virtue of its reliance on solar energy, makes this an attractive and sustainable option,” said VK Madhvan, Chief Executive of WaterAid India.

Earlier this month, the World Wide Fund (WWF), in its Water Risk Filter report, said that 30 Indian cities face imminent water-related risks unless immediate actions are taken to mitigate and curb climate change.

Mercom had earlier reported that India is suffering from the worst water crisis in its history, and millions of lives are at risk. According to the NITI Aayog, 600 million Indians face high to extreme water stress, and about 0.2 million people die every year due to inadequate access to safe water. And the crisis is only going to get worse. The article further added that by 2030, the country’s water demand is projected to be twice the available supply, implying a severe water scarcity for hundreds of millions of people and an eventual ~6% loss in the country’s GDP.

Image credit: Desolenator

Harsh Shukla is a staff reporter at Mercom India. Previously with Indian Express, he has covered general interest stories. He holds a Masters Degree in Journalism from Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune.

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