Eli5 if salt water turns to fresh water when it evaporates how do we have water shortages in coastal regions or water shortages in general?

Question

Eli5 if salt water turns to fresh water when it evaporates how do we have water shortages in coastal regions or water shortages in general?

In: 55

Answer 1

Evaporating water is relatively difficult. The sun will evaporate water and produce fresh water rain, but if not enough falls where you are then you can have a shortage. Even if you are near the ocean it doesn’t mean that you can practically produce fresh water from the salt water.

It takes a lot of energy to boil water. People expect their fresh water to be relatively cheap, and the energy required to boil off a bathtub’s worth of water is going to be more expensive than people want to pay for a bath.