Thirst Trap; Let’s Talk Desalination
The California Coastal Commission rejected the proposed desalination plant in Huntington Beach, Orange County (your author’s home county) last week, sealing the project’s fate after more than 20 years of planning. The decision about the $1.4-billion plant in Huntington Beach is pivotal for the future of California’s water supply, as it converts seawater into clean drinking water to help buffer its vulnerable water supply against drought.
The fight surrounding the Huntington Beach plant should spark a wider debate over the role of desalination in California’s drought-filled future. The snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains has diminished (the Lyell glacier being recategorized as a snow field) and rivers that feed California’s reservoirs have dried up. The state informed farms and cities they would receive only 5% of their normal allocation from the State Water Project. A recent study found that the current drought is the driest 22-year period the south-west has seen in at least 1,200 years. The plant in Orange County was an attempt to diversify from these sources. It would have sucked in nearly 107 million gallons of seawater and spit out 50 million gallons of drinkable water a day, enough to supply nearly 460,000 of the total 3.2 million people living in Orange County.
The arguments against desalination are well known. The reverse-osmosis process used to separate the salt from the water is energy-intensive. The plants’ intake systems and the salty brine they discharge back into the ocean harm marine life. Economically its viability is also questionable. Desalination is by far the most expensive choice among alternative water sources. An analysis from the Pacific Institute, a think-tank in Oakland, estimates that the median cost for a big seawater-desalination project is $2,100 per acre-foot of water (an acre-foot is enough for 2–3 households per year). Large water-recycling projects, the next-priciest choice, cost roughly $1,800 an acre-foot.
Nevertheless, approximately 16,000 operational desalination plants across 177 countries generate an estimated 95 million m3/day of freshwater. According to the Economist, nearly half (48%) of global production is, not surprisingly, in the Middle East and North Africa. Eight countries — the Maldives, Singapore, Qatar, Malta, Antigua, Kuwait, the Bahamas, and Bahrain — produce more desalinated water than they withdraw from natural sources.
Nonetheless, sustainability activists and water-policy nerds still view desalination as a last resort, preferring conservation, recycling, and capturing stormwater. In fact, Southern California saw a massive decrease in use as the state started cracking down on run-off and green lawns. It is going to take a multi-pronged approach to bridge the future of global water scarcity, desalination already fits into the picture, but technology will have to improve to ease concerns.
Derek Brooks, Head of Venture
Millions sweltered in a dangerous early summer heatwave across India and Pakistan that has led to power and water shortages as annual furnace-like temperatures hit South Asia.
The winner of this year’s MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition is commercializing a new water desalination technology. Nona Desalination has developed a device capable of producing enough drinking water for ten people at half the cost and with 1/10th the power of other water desalination devices. The device is the size and weight of a case of bottled water and is powered by a small solar panel.
The Water Scarcity Clock is an interactive webtool that visualizes how many people live in water scarcity around the world.
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