The Present and Future of Water Desalination

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By Sophia Kaisermann

 Water. A basic need for survival of all living beings. It covers 71% of the Earth. Although the Earth is filled with water, many parts of the world are suffereing from water scarcety. In many places, people don't know how to tell the difference between clean and dirty water. In fact, over 5 million people die every year from a disease related to cotaminated water. That number will keep growing if something isn't done. Because of this water shortage, scientists have invented creative solutions to solve this problem. One popular solution is water desalination.

  Water desalination is the process in which the salt and other minerals are removed from sea water through a type of filtration. By removing the salt, the water becomes fresh and safe for humans to consume. The process of desalination begins with the sea water passing through several lairs of different media such as sand and gravel. After the filtration, the water goes through the desalination membrane. The sea water passes through a semi-permeable membrane that allows the water to pass through but not the salt. 

 Currently, 120 countries around the world are using desalination in order to get fresh 
water. This means that worldwide, desalination plants produce over 3.5 billion gallons of fresh water per day. There are 2,000 desalination plants in the United States, with Florida producing the most water. According to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, "Florida takes the lead for municipal desalination by volume, with 282 million gallons of potable water produced per day from both ocean and brackish water treatment"

Desalination is definitely one of the best ways to get fresh water in places where there is none. However, there are some downsides. A major downside is cost. Desalination plants are very expensive to both build and maintain. As Scientific American explained it, "It's hard to put an exact dollar figure on desalination—this number varies wildly from place to place, based on labor and energy costs, land prices, financial agreements, and even the salt content of the water. It can cost from just under $1 to well over $2 to produce one cubic meter (264 gallons) of desalted water from the ocean. That's about as much as two people in the U.S. typically go through in a day at home." Although it may be expensive, I believe that desalination plants will become very popular in the future. It is a brilliant idea and as technologies improve, the cost may lower. With all the benefits of desalination, more plants will be opening throughout the world. So my question to the world is: Water you waiting for?


External Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ7bgkFgqJQ 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/why-dont-we-get-our-water-from-the-ocean 

https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/water-scarcity 

https://www.treehugger.com/how-desalination-works 

https://science.howstuffworks.com/oceanography/desalination 

https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/whats-the-deal-with-desalination 

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