Firms to sell deep-sea water as drinking water, aquaculture use

TAIWAN - Several Taiwan companies, eyeing the health benefits of deep-ocean water, plan to sell deep-sea water as drinking water, the Water Resources Agency (WRA) said on Wednesday.

``Several companies plan to sell the deep-sea water retrieved from Pacific Ocean as drinking water, and use it for aquaculture, the pharmaceutical industry and spas,'' Chen Shen-hsien said.
``Bottled deep-sea water will appear on the market in November. It will become a popular drink because deep-sea water is bacteria-free and is rich in minerals and nutrition,'' he said.

Deep-sea water refers to water 200 metres under the sea surface. Taiwan commands a unique geographical location for utilizing deep-sea water because just 50 kilometres off Taiwan's east coast the seabed drops to a depth of 4 kilometres.

At least three companies have laid pipes to retrieve deep-sea water to sell it as bottled water after desalination.

Source: Bangkok Post