eli5: Why is it so difficult to desalinate sea water to solve water issues?
In: 1972
It isn’t difficult in the sense that there is no means to do it. In fact it is a fairly simple process.
The difficulty is cost and the main elements are cost of the capital (buildings, equipment) and cost of energy required to accomplish desalination.
We use a lot of water, so facilities for desalination have to be very large to make a difference. This introduces many capital cost factors – like land, disposal of brine etc.
Desalination is energy intensive and energy is expensive. Water, unfortunately, has traditionally been “sold” at a very low cost. In this sense, many parts of society consider it a “right” etc which makes it a politically and socially difficult product to sell at the price that would support desalination (ie pay for the capital and energy needed)
Having said this, there are places and countries like Saudi Arabia, Israel and Singapore who have integrated desalination into their water infrastructure. So it is not impossible, it is simply uneconomical or politically difficult to do in many cases.
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