The Role of Desalination in an Increasingly Water-Scarce World
The cost of desalination has been plummeting over the years. As a result, desalination has become a viable option for certain strategic uses. Today, over 20,000 desalination plants in more than 150 countries supply about 300 million people with fre...
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| Format: | Technical Paper |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2019
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/476041552622967264/The-Role-of-Desalination-in-an-Increasingly-Water-Scarce-World-Technical-Paper http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31416 |
| Summary: | The cost of desalination has been
plummeting over the years. As a result, desalination has
become a viable option for certain strategic uses. Today,
over 20,000 desalination plants in more than 150 countries
supply about 300 million people with freshwater every day.
Initially a niche product for energy rich and water scarce
cities, particularly in the Middle East, the continued
decrease in cost and environmental viability of desalination
has the potential to significantly expand its use -
particularly for rapidly growing water scarce coastal
cities. Desalination can be seen as one option in a
portfolio water supply sources, including traditional
surface water and groundwater sources as well as wastewater
reuse, to meet growing water demand gap. Although still
relatively expensive, desalination offers the potential to
enhance system reliability. As renewable sources of energy
such as wind and solar expand, and as advances in
concentrate management techniques make discharges from
desalination plants much cheaper and safer, the prospect of
producing freshwater from the sea without increasing
greenhouse gases and without significant damages to the
local environment become more promising. |
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