Desalination And Its Impact On The Environment

According to the International Water Management Institute environmental research organisation global water stress is increasing, and a third of all people face some sort of water scarcity. Where demand exceeds supply and no effective management operates, there will be conflicts between the various players involved.

Water is one of the most precious resources, which support the life of almost everything in the world. Indeed, the world is covered by 75% water, but most of this water is not suitable for human consumption or use. On the same note, the world has been increasing its consumption of water due to the increasing population, leading to increased demands. The increased water consumption, which has been a result of high population, is worrying because the matter may lead to massive water shortages in the future.

The world’s supply of water is in steep decline as more and more is being used each year by more and more people around the globe. Currently, 800 million people do not have access to a drinking source. At the current rate, 1.8 billion people could be living in areas of absolute water scarcity by 2025.

“Israel now gets 55 percent of its domestic water from desalination, and that has helped to turn one of the world’s driest countries into the unlikeliest of water giants.” (Jacobsen) Desalination is not a new idea it has been around for along time as far back as Aristotle in the 4th century and re emerging again the 1800s. Desalination is probably not going to be the magic solution to California 's drought problem at least not completely after all even the world’s biggest desal plants are only supplemental. The plants tend to not make enough water to support an entire population. Israel 's desal plant provide enough water for 2.8 million people, but California 's population is five times as bigger than israel 's and our agricultural industry is about thirty two times bigger. It can also be twice as expensive as treating other water sources due to having to heat the water. And there is also the problem of what to do with the leftover water or brine. Apparently you can’t just dump it back into the ocean as it could cause death to the nearby sea creatures due to it being too salty.

However, due to the long lasting drought in California we should heavily consider this method of producing clean water. In other parts of the world such as China, India, Australia, Spain and more they have been able to produce nearly fourteen billion gallons of drinking water through this process. The largest desalination plant in the world is located in Saudi Arabia and produces two hundred and seventy three million gallons of drinking water per day. If the United States is able to perfect this, it could fix the situation. Amanda Little does an excellent job of sharing a wide array of perspectives of desalination in her article “Can Desalination Counter The Drought”. For instance she describes the discusses the standpoint of the executive director of the California Coast keeper Alliance, Sara Aminzadeh, as she argues, “It’s just not a good option from a cost and energy standpoint.” She goes on to say, “Desalination may seem like a panacea, but it’s the worst deal out there.” Although this method may not be cost or energy efficient, this may be the only plausible method of producing clean water. As seen in Saudi Arabia this is an efficient form of creating clean water and due to the lack of resources, this may be California’s last

There is a water crisis which faces many parts of the world and it is a threat to survival of human beings since humans are primarily dependent on water. Shortage in drinking water is beginning to show its effects in first world countries, but is a current major problem facing lesser developed countries which have not taken drastic steps to harvest water and purify it to make it safe for human consumption. In developed countries the population growth has strained available water resources and stretched the ability of governments and private firms to provide safe drinking water to the vast majority of the population. Seventy one percent of

Some areas of the world are already considered water stressed. In areas that are water stressed, the amount of sustainable water is running low. The people in these regions are in need of new and clean water to start being present. According to Roberts, “By 2050 more than half the world’s

Desalination technology converts the tons of seawater that cover’s California’s coast into drinkable water. This process, though expensive and difficult, would provide California with an endless supply of water. The ocean is a huge part of the California lifestyle, and it could become a huge source of their water supply too. The Groundwater Replenishment System recycles water to be used again. It takes in about seventy million gallons of waste water a day and puts it through a cleaning and purifying process, that then makes this water safe enough to drink. Many people may not be comfortable with drinking recycled water, but this water could be put to use in landscaping and farming, adding seventy million extra gallons a day. The desalination process may be a bit far fetched for now, but using a water recycling program is completely feasible and would be a huge help in reducing California’s use of water. (only its not reducing, its just providing them with more water to use yknow? how should I phrase that?)

According to David Sedlak, we have made large progress in seawater desalination for the past 2 decades. The largest seawater desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere that is built north of San Diego uses half of the energy use than Santa Barbara 25 years ago. One reason why Sea Water is a good way to save more groundwater because we do not have a lot of water, but lots of oil. Also seawater desalination is not always good, there is a negative side. It is energy intensive; that means that it will cause a lot more climate change, but that is the only negative thing David Sadlak had mentioned about seawater desalination; but so far the new seawater desalination plant uses half the energy it used to. This would help California because it would lower the amount of water that is pumped from the ground, therefore, seawater desalination is a possible solution for conserving more

The issue of building desalination plants has been a hot topic of Californians in the past couple decades because researchers knew that our available surface and groundwater supplies are becoming scarce. This problem is important because California is home to a large population of people as well as extensive agricultural and industrial productions that need vast amounts of water. With the reduction in available ground and fresh water brings other problems that need to be addressed. Many farmers are having to impose stricter management policies in regards to how they use the water the pay so much for. Crops sensitive to the amount of water they receive or do not receive can be destroyed in a short amount of time if neglected of water. With the amount of fresh water accumulated by both snow melt of California’s mountains as well as ground water retrieved from wells and pumps being depleted faster than we can recharge those sources, farmers face further impacts. An article by Robert Glennon, “Unquenchable: Americas water crisis and what to do about it” says “In the summer of 2009, California is facing mandatory water rationing. Many farmers may be entirely cut off, costing the economy more than $1 billion and putting more

With the water crisis being seen around the world, even right here in the United States, we need to explore other options to supply fresh water to the residents. One State, in particular, that raises concern is the state of California. An alternative method to supply water to residents could be the process of desalination. Desalination is when fresh water is made by using either seawater or brackish and eliminating the minerals and salts as a way to make the water safe for human and agriculture uses ( Kesieme et al., 2013). In recent years, we have seen an increase the in the number of desalination plants around the United States (fig 1). However, is the process of desalination the answer for the water crisis going on in California? As a

Desalination is one of the more popular options being considered to attempt to terminate the drought. Desalination is a process through which salt water is pumped from the ocean in to a treatment facility, and then the salt is extracted to make it possible to be used domestically. This is a long drawn out process, which involves seven different steps. The steps of desalination include the

The water-energy tradeoff with desalination is apparent than any other options, given its energy intensity. Table 5.5 compiled some indicators to illustrate the resource features in provinces with desalination capacity. The majority of the present capacity is located in the most water and energy stressed provinces along the east coast. Desalination might be pursuable in some remote southern island, where freshwater availability has posed a constraint on basic human need. But it is still debatable whether large-scale desalination is a good choice for the water deficient north. From the nexus perspective, investing in more desalination projects in water-energy stressed areas could worsen their power shortage by adding more demand.

Desalination Water Plant is a water filtration plant that takes salt water from the ocean and turn it into fresh drinking water. Although the desalination process has been around for centuries, desalination plants allowing large-scale treatment of water didn 't come until the 1950s. In the year 2002, 12,500 desalination plants in 120 countries provided 14 million cubic meters per day of fresh drinking water (Ackerman, 2012).

It is an essential resource for sustaining life as well as central to agriculture and rural development, and is intrinsically linked to global challenges of food insecurity and poverty, climate change adaptation and mitigation, as well as degradation and depletion of natural resources that affect the livelihoods of millions of people across the world. According to the World Bank, (2010) report, water is a scarce resource with multiple interwoven uses that range from drinking water, energy, irrigation, manufacturing things, transport of people and goods among others. The report further states that, more than one-sixth of the Worlds’ population does not have access to safe drinking water, with 80% living in rural areas thus access to water cannot not be guaranteed globally.