<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/in-desalination2.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273" srcset="https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/in-desalination2.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273 400w, https://s.w-x.co/util/image/w/in-desalination2.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551 800w" > A desalination plant at Nammeli in Tamil Nadu (Photo: BA Raju/ BCCL Tamil Nadu)

A few days after Finance Minister Nirmala Seetharaman announced the government's plans to provide potable water to every rural household by 2024, the outline of an ambitious nationwide desalination policy is taking shape.

Faced with the prospect of acute water crises in urban and rural areas, NITI Aayog, the national think-tank, plans to tackle the challenge by building desalination plants along India's 7,800-km coastline. Running on solar or ocean-drawn power, the floating plants will also be energy-efficient.

A NITI Aayog official, quoted anonymously by The Economic Times, said that the government think-tank will work with the newly-formed Jal Shakti ministry and provide it with the cost analysis and project viability report for setting up the desalination plants. Following this, a policy will be drawn up.

"The government will soon come up with a directive for the ministry to kickstart work in this direction,” the official told ET .

The desalinated water generated by the plants will be sent to population centres through a network of pipes. NITI Aayog will soon come up with a detailed plan listing the technologies that can be used in different states to help set up commercially viable desalination plants.

In June, the South Asia Drought Monitor had said that 44% of India faces drought-like conditions. States like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra are trapped in a 'severe dry cycle'. By 2020, per-head availability of water is expected to fall by 35% from 2001 levels, according to the government.

Given this grim news, the proposal of setting up several new desalination plants could be a shot in the arm for the government's plans to provide clean water to all.

Under international law, a country's territorial sea area can extend up to 12 nautical miles off the coast, and its maritime exclusive economic zone up to 200 nautical miles. India's maritime EEZ is 1.63 million square km.