Nervous About the Drought? Learn About Desalination Here

      

Rivers are drying out in drought-affected areas throughout the world

      Bloomberg Businessweek’s article, “Fix This”, addresses several current issues related to water shortages around the world. The article interviews several prominent executives in water-related organizations. One of the subjects that are addressed is the future of desalination. Desalination is something I have heard about in the past, but I did not know much about it. Given that water shortages may seriously lead to a growth of desalination, I found some important information about this issue.

            One important lesson is that people can build their own desalination tools quite easily. This could become a norm for people who prefer to maintain their own water resources. The simple solution requires creating a “solar still”, where saltwater is heat up by the sun, and the steam that comes up is collected on the walls, where it condenses as freshwater and trips into a separate trough. However, for people who are used to using high levels of water each day, such natural solutions will not be able provide enough fresh water. 

            I also learned which areas of the world rely most on desalination today. These include the Middle East, which uses about 70% of desalinized water, and North Africa, which uses about 6%. In the United States, desalination is most common in California and Florida.

Desalination Plant in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates

             Given that desalination technology already exists, it is entirely possible that it could be a solution to water shortages in the future. The question remains as to how large of scale desalination can and will become. An additional question is whether the growth of desalination will be at the hands of governments or the private sector.