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Potable water is a precious commodity and the conservation of water and water bodies like rivers, lakes and ground water has become a prime consideration of all states, societies and nations of the world. It is being said that future wars will be fought for water. We are already witnessing the bitter quarrels taking place on account of the interstate rivers among the states of India. Water conservation means that we shall preserve all sources of water without any wastage, shall not waste while extraction, transportation and use and shall recycle and re-use water wherever possible. Fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) products have a very prominent role to play in this task of water conservation and the advantages of using FRP over other materials like steel, plastics and concrete are quite well known. Filament wound shells are used as pipes for tube wells and cross country pipe lines and as pressure cylinders for filters and reverse osmosis (RO) systems. Recently, all composite road tankers have been made by filament winding which can be used for transportation of water, FRP tanks both moulded and sectional type are used for storage of water. FRP septic tanks, sewerage lines and storage tanks are used for collecting and disposing/recycling waster water and thereby preventing the contamination of the water bodies and ground water source. Well made FRP pipes and storage systems can last more than 50 years and in this respect FRP are much superior to other materials. However, the benefits of using FRP products for water handling and conservation are not well publicized among the decision makers of the government and local bodies. They are also not well educated about the way the FRP products must be checked for their quality and durability while procuring. As a result, the use of composites has not picked up as much as it should have. TheComposites industry has a moral and legal responsibility to educated the users about the virtues and to provide good quality FRP products that itself shall not contaminate water. Products for water conservation can be a major outlet for FRP. For example, India needs to make neraly 4000 km of pipe lines of different sizes every year for the next 50 years in order to cater the growing needs of our society. Even a 50% share of this requirement needs 80 filament winding machines and 70,000 tonnes per annum of glass fibre to make them. This means that we have to double our glass fibre production. There are several other products like the pipes for the conservation and use of water. The composites industry has to understand this potential and wake up to the challenges in making quality durable pipes and for winning and retaining the confidences of the end users.
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