Eli5: why haven’t we started considering or implementing large scale desalinization in response to our water shortages?
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There are a slew of reasons why people say we shouldn’t do water recycling and desalinization. Meanwhile some areas are seeing their water supplies dwindle year after year.
IMO the unfortunate reality is that many societies have grown accustomed to cheap and easy to access to freshwater (lakes, rivers and groundwater) and these sources are simply starting to run out – for a variety of reasons.
I 100% support reasonable water conservation policies (ie not allowing turf lawns in Las Vegas), but many areas simply NEED to expand their water supplies with water recycling and desalinization technologies.
The downside of doing this, is that consumers may need to pay more for a human necessity.
To potentially reduce costs and prevent unintended environmental harm, there needs to be continued funding from both the private and public sectors into brine mining, membrane technologies and electrolysis and renewable energy.
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