Desalination worsens water crisis

Desalination worsens water crisis
Environmental group WWF has warned that using sea water to produce drinking water would not only worsen the water crisis, but would in fact play a part in global warming.

The WWF report comes after a number of countries, including Australia, Spain and in Middle East, are opting for desalination in order to combat fresh water crisis. Australia has recently announced that it will be building one of the world's largest desalination plants in order to provide drinking water to Melbourne.

According to the report, over 60 percent of drinking water needs in the Middle East has been met by desalination process while Spain has diverted over 22 percent of fresh water supply acquired by desalination to agricultural needs.

"Desalinating the sea is an expensive, energy-intensive and greenhouse gas emitting way to get water. It may have a place in the world's future fresh water supplies but regions still have cheaper, better and complementary ways to supply water that are less risky to the environment", said Jamie Pittock, director of WWF's global freshwater program.

Some of the harmful effects of desalination process include brine build-up, destruction of prized coastal areas, increased greenhouse gas emissions and reduced emphasis on conservation of rivers and wetlands.

Other effects of desalination include damage to the sea ecosystem since the marine organisms are unable to adapt to some of the byproducts of the process such as higher salinity.