Desalination no answer to water crisis: WWF

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Desalination no answer to water crisis: WWF

By Laura MacInnis
Mon Jun 18, 8:04 PM ET

GENEVA (Reuters) - Removing salt from sea water to overcome
a worldwide shortage of drinking water could end up worsening
the crisis, environmental group WWF warned on Tuesday.

Desalination, the filtering and evaporation of sea water, is
very energy-intensive and involves significant emissions of
greenhouse gases that scientists say are a factor in the
shrinking supplies of freshwater, the Swiss-based group said.

Spain, Saudi Arabia, Australia and other arid countries should
rely more on water conservation and recycling and avoid huge
desalination projects that have been linked to pollution and
ecosystem damage.

"The quite possibly mistaken lure of widespread water
availability from desalination ... has the potential to drive a
major misdirection of public attention, policy and funds away
from the pressing need to use all water wisely," it said.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070619/sc_nm/desalination_dc

[lynnertic]

1. when we sailed open water, we had these little emergency gizmos

that looked like floating plastic tents (pool toys) that we were told could desalinate some significant amount (can't remember pint or quart) of water each day, powered by sunlight.

So I'm not buying this line of logic. Perhaps the *equipment* they're considering won't be effective, and the process surely has drawbacks, but it's certainly worth researching in my book.

[TechBear_Seattle]

4. You can not get the quantity needed just by evaporation

There is a vast difference in scale: these water production plants provide water for drinking, cooking, washing and agriculture for millions of people, not just a quantity of water for the emergency use of one or two people.

Evaporation is slow and entirely dependent on the weather; there is no way that evaporation alone could provide the water needs for a small village, much less the water needs of half a country. The infrastructure to provide solar distilled water would have to be quite large and spread out over a huge area.

The osmotic process used by most desalinization plants can produce larger quantities of better quality water faster than evaporative distilling, and with less energy than what is needed to distill the water by heating it with other than solar power. Believe me, alternatives have been investigated. My grandfather was a pump engineer who specialized in desalinization plants; he devoured journals reporting research in his field and often expressed dismay that cheaper, more efficient plants were beyond current technology.

[izzie]

2. Having lived at a plant that does this in SA I must say this

I have also lived with a man who worked on the Alaska Pipe Line and you can bet which one one was cleaner. I am sure the Saudi needed the water more than we needed the oil. Over all I just do not know what the 'doing' of it does to the world. Oil or water? My guess is it is really a mixed message in Saudi as the oil wealth lets them give the people water just as one of their Kings had planned. He also wanted to educate women but I think some one shoot him. The real danger and problem seems to be a women with a book in those countries. To hell with air being clean.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Been hearing this from WWF for a while, but...

while they have a point, they don't provide realistic alternatives.

Unfortunately, technological fixes are always easier than changing behavior, so desalinization is going to happen whether we like it or not. But, it could just be expensive enough for the cost to force us to waste less water.

[razzleberry]

5. some people don't deserve to have water ... WWF

check out

http://WWF-are-Shitheads.com

for their side of the story