DESALINATED

IT LOOKED LIKE A PROP FROM MAD MAX DROPPED DOWN IN THE TROPICS, A WEIRD, INDUSTRIAL BEHEMOTH

We told them not to build those there, the mooppan said, pointing to the concrete pier straddling a slab of coral reef. On cue a right-hander spun across the reef and collided into the pier, the swell getting squeezed through the pylons to produce a wedge on the other side that barrelled down the line.

The was the chief of the little village in front of the wave we were watching. He told me that Indian scientists and engineers had built the pier for