{"id":13257,"date":"2021-05-17T09:18:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T07:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.gstic.org\/?p=13257"},"modified":"2022-03-18T09:21:32","modified_gmt":"2022-03-18T08:21:32","slug":"how-desalination-can-help-address-the-freshwater-challenge","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.gstic.org\/expert-story\/how-desalination-can-help-address-the-freshwater-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"How desalination can help address the freshwater challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Water is a scarce resource, at least fresh water is. While water covers 70% of our planet, only 3% of the world\u2019s water is fresh water. Also, two-thirds of that 3% is hidden in glaciers or unavailable for drinking, bathing or irrigating our farm fields. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United Nations<\/a> reports that over 2 billion people live in countries that experience high water stress. Water stress, which is the ratio of water use to the availability of freshwater resources, has been increasing over time, mainly because of rising water consumption. But as climate change will further increase the risk of droughts, changes in water availability are likely to intensify water stress as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Desalination delivers 95 billion litres of water per day for human use<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Access to sufficient quantities of quality fresh water is essential to achieve various sustainable development goals, including those related to food security, health, and reducing poverty. Water scarcity<\/a> has explicitly been identified as a major global challenge of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Because water use has been growing twice as fast as the global population and is further increasing, conventional freshwater resources are no longer sufficient to meet rising water demands. Given that oceans cover 70% of the earth\u2019s surface, it is only natural that we look at them as a source to help limit the gap between water demand and supply. Seawater desalination approaches are therefore needed and are expected to play a vital role in this regard. Sixteen thousand desalination plants are currently estimated to be active. These plants already produce 95 billion litres of desalinated water per day for human use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Main types of desalination methods<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The main types of desalination methods are membrane desalination (such as Reverse Osmosis), and thermal desalination. While thermal desalination uses heat to evaporate, condense and purify water, Reverse Osmosis is using pressure-driven separation technology. It removes salt and other impurities by passing water through a series of semi-permeable membranes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As the basic efficiency of the Reverse Osmosis process is very high, this membrane technology has evolved into the leading desalination method since its development approximately 70 years ago. The expectation is that future technological challenges and developments will focus on three pathways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n