ONGC drills deserts to tap water

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation is drilling deserts to tap underground fresh water resources. For the venture, the oil major has signed a memorandum of understanding with Water and Power Consultancy Services, a mini-ratna company.

Named Saraswati (after the ancient mystical river), ONGC intends to tap underground reserves of fresh groundwater in the paleo-lows of drought prone areas.

ONGC is replicating the Libyan government's Rs 1,000-crore Great Manmade River project, which similarly tapped fresh water resources.

The energy major expects to begin exploration within a month in Jaisalmer in Rajastan. At the outset, ONGC plans to drill 10 to 12 wells at a cost of about Rs 1.2 crore (Rs 12 million). The drilled water will be transported through a huge network of underground pipes to different parts of the country.

"The team has been given complete freedom for the project Saraswati. At the conceptual stage itself, chairman and managing director Subir Raha made it clear that ONGC will entirely fund the project and execute it directly," coordinator of the project M Rajagopala Rao, general manager (Geophysics), told Business Standard.

ONGC is preparing the grounds on which to address the issue of water, which can turn out to be as serious as the oil crisis of the 1970s. Wapcos, a front-line agency in water management, carried out feasibility studies for the project.

"Wapcos is in the process of drilling and testing of deep water wells in 13 districts of north-west Rajasthan.

With the help of geo-satellites, the exploration team has marked huge fresh water aquifers in the paleo-lows, which might have been charged by Vedic age rivers believed to have flowed through this area," said Rao.

"Of all the freshwater, two-thirds is locked in glaciers and permanent snow covers. In the future, water scarcity will be more of an issue than oil for the growing population. By realising this ONGC is readying to take on new challenges," he added.