Desalination is a Viable Response to Water Crises

Hello Purple_Circle, and thank you for accepting! I will argue that desalination is a viable response to water crises. We have all heard the statistics. Earth"s surface is roughly 70% water, and only 2.5% of that water is freshwater. Of that 2.5%, barely 1% of all freshwater is easily attainable [1]. But what do these numbers actually translate to? They mean that of the seemingly infinite amount of water on Earth, only a miniscule fraction is readily available for over 7 billion humans to drink, whom all need water to survive. While this matter may seem irrelevant to people living in places where water scarcity has never been a concern, many parts of the world are already experiencing this. "Even in the United States, demand for water in drought-ravaged California and the desert Southwest is outpacing supply" [2]. The future is not looking to improve anytime soon; in less than a decade, 1.8 billion people will live in areas under absolute water scarcity, the worst level of water scarcity [3]. The Earth"s population is growing while its freshwater supply is diminishing. The Earth"s aquifers, underground deposits of water, are quickly being depleted, which account for 35% of human"s water use [11]. In order to combat water crises, I believe that desalination, the process of removing salt from ocean water in order to yield clean water, will be a strong solution until a better one is discovered. I will now provide reasons why desalination is a viable response to water crises. 1. The ocean is huge Desalination requires a large amount of salt water. Fortunately, the ocean is a virtually unlimited supply of water that we have available to us to desalinate. Anybody who has seen the ocean knows how massive it is. Imagine how many water bottles could be filled from an average sized swimming pool. Now picture the ocean. Thus, it is nonsensical to worry about depleting the Earth of all its water. In fact, the global sea level has risen approximately four to eight inches in the last century due to global warming, so to an extent desalination plants would actually help counter this situation [4]. Of course, this would be no excuse to stop worrying about rising sea levels and the environment. But it could at least help. In essence, more salt water equals more drinking water, by way of desalination. 2. Desalination is effective and reliable Reverse osmosis is "where salt water is forced against a filter. The filter has extremely small openings, so small that only water can go through it and the salt is left behind" [6]. This is the most popular technique used in desalination plants and has been well researched for years [9]. As I mentioned earlier, desalination has proven to be extremely efficient, particularly in response to California"s drought. "While [desalination] has long been confined by steep costs and environmental concerns, even some critics now say it merits a place in the state"s water portfolio" [5]. The largest desalination plant in the United States is located near San Diego, California and is capable of producing tens of millions of gallons of water every day. By itself it can provide water to 7% of San Diego County [5]. 3. We need water for other uses besides drinking Humans are not the only animals that require water to live; all of them do, including the ones we eat. In the case of a sever water crisis, we will need water not only for drinking but also for maintaining our livestock as well as watering our crops. In California, 80% of water use is used for agriculture [10]. Taking into consideration just how much fresh water desalination plants can produce in as little as a day, we can see how this technique would allow us to sustain livestock and crops. In the case of an actual water crisis, people would likely conserve more water for themselves than for their animals and plants, which is where desalination could come in to help. 4. Better technology is making desalination cheaper and more eco-friendly Desalination requires large amounts of energy. Fortunately, renewable energy such as solar energy is beginning to be implemented. A company in California is working on a system which uses the sun"s energy rather than reverse osmosis to produce drinkable water. "This concentrated solar still collects the sun's energy, which heats a pipe containing natural oil, providing heat for the subsequent distillation process." This process is beginning to see use around the world, such as a plant in Australia. "Located 100 metres from the shore, the solar-powered plant treats salt water pumped directly from the sea. As well as returning freshwater, the plant uses hot water generated during the desalination process to heat nearby greenhouses" [7]. This shows how new options will not only be cheaper but also beneficial to the surrounding areas. Other new technologies are also being looked into. In 2011, a physics professor at the University of Chicago was awarded a grant to continue research and development on a nanoparticle desalination system which could significantly cut down on energy usage and expenses that results from the energy required for reverse osmosis. "As a result, it allows 100 times more flow at the same pressure. In addition, the self-assembly process used to fabricate it reduces costs" [8]. As technology becomes better, so will the efficiency of desalination techniques. Costs and carbon emissions will decrease, and drinking water output will increase. It is important to note the criteria of what I am arguing: I am arguing that desalination is a viable response to a water crisis. The term "water crisis" can be quite subjective, which is why I defined it as "a situation where the available potable, unpolluted water within a region is less than that region's demand." When plants, livestock and people begin getting sick and dying due to dehydration, this would be a situation we could classify as a crisis, and I believe it would certainly call for the utilization of desalination in order to make available drinkable water to hundreds of millions of people if not more. To conclude, water is the most basic of our physiological needs. Humans cannot survive more than a few days without water, thus our first priority must be ensuring the survival of our species. Desalination may currently be costly and potentially harmful to the environment, but advances in technology are rapidly changing this. The ocean is virtually an inexhaustible supply of water that we can harness until a better solution to the issue is resolved. Through desalination, the percentage of Earth"s water that is both attainable and capable of being drinkable by billions of people around the world will go from a fraction of a percent to virtually 100%. Sources 1. http://environment.nationalgeographic.com... 2. http://www.cnn.com... 3. http://www.unwater.org... 4. http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com... 5. http://ww2.kqed.org... 6. http://scienceline.ucsb.edu... 7. http://www.theguardian.com... 8. http://tech.uchicago.edu... 9. http://www.wwdmag.com... 10. http://thinkprogress.org... 11. https://www.washingtonpost.com...