A desalination plant is a system that converts seawater to drinkable water. These plants are very important because as sea levels rise, fresh water can become less available. Some countries and states even rely on desalination plants because they do not have enough freshwater of their own. Israel, a country smaller than New Jersey, gets half of its domestic water from desalination, and actually has more water than it needs. Water is such a precious resource and having a desalination plant can save people’s lives and livelihoods. Israel had an extreme drought a few years ago, where farmers were losing a year’s worth of crops, but because they built desalination plants, they have more than recovered from the drought, and a lucrative business was built. The company that built the most recent desalination plant outside of Tel Aviv just built one in Carlsbad, Southern California, a place notorious for their droughts and fires.
The reason having desalination plants in dry areas is relevant today, because Cape Town, South Africa is about to completely run out of water, and there is a viable solution on the horizon. The city is rushing to build some temporary desalination plants, so the people can survive until the earth can replenish itself. Technology can do wonders, and desalination plants are further proof of that, but the main issue with building these desalination plants is that it will cost the city big time. The process to turn salt water into drinkable water is a very expensive process, that uses a lot of electricity. The timeline for a solution to this grievous event, running completely out of water, is drawing near. The calculated date that Cape Town’s taps will run dry is April 16th, and that date could end up changing to a sooner time. Cape Town is going to have to build a desalination plant and will apparently be called the Strandfontein plant and cost around $19.8 million dollars. This might be a big expense, but it is well worth the cost, because the alternative is grim. If there is no water in an entire city, how can people possibly continue to live there? People would have to leave Cape Town, and the city would pretty much disappear.
Desalination is bound to become a more important necessity in our future on Earth, considering how the Earth is getting warmer as time goes on. Even a small change in temperature can cause a lot of changes to the planet, because the waters get warmer, which causes events like ice melting – which destroys habitats for the polar bears and other creatures – coral bleaching, hurricanes, and other horrible natural disasters. Desalination plants are a great way to start evolving with the changing environment, since humanity would rather just build more tech than make actual changes to how we live, which would solve a lot of problems.
References:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/israel-proves-the-desalination-era-is-here/
https://moguldom.com/18453/cape-town-desalination-relying-on-tech-to-save-the-city-from-dying-of-thirst/
