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Articles on Desalination

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The Carlsbad Desalination Plant in Southern California is the largest such plant in the Western Hemisphere, providing 50 million gallons of desalinated seawater per day.​ Reed Kaestner via Getty Images

Desalinating seawater sounds easy, but there are cheaper and more sustainable ways to meet people’s water needs

Nearly 97% of the world’s water is in the oceans, but desalination is no magic bullet for water-stressed coastal cities.
Dave Hunt/AAP

The ‘yuck factor’ pushes a premier towards desalination yet again, but history suggests recycled water’s time has come

Australian politicians have a history of opting for high-cost, high-emissions desalination projects. The Queensland government is still wary of using the largely untapped resource of recycled water.
The old village of Aceredo, submerged 30 years ago when a hydropower dam flooded the valley, emerged during a drought in northwestern Spain, in February 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

IPCC report: Half the world is facing water scarcity, floods and dirty water — large investments are needed for effective solutions

Water is central to adapting to climate change, but very few of the strategies put in place to respond to water hazards or ensure its availability have been evaluated.
New technologies that can clean salty or polluted water could help meet growing water needs. Science Photo Library/Getty Images

A new way to remove salts and toxic metals from water

Desalination can help meet growing water needs globally. But toxic wastewater and inefficiency hamper current techniques. A new approach uses custom membranes to clean water more easily.
Sunburnt Victorian fields are set to become more common under climate change. Fir0002/Flagstaffotos/Wikimedia Commons

2℃ of global warming would put pressure on Melbourne’s water supply

Hitting the Paris targets will go a long way to securing Melbourne’s water supply against future pressure.
The enthusiasm for recycling water that Australians had at the height of the drought little more than a decade ago has waned. Shaney Balcombe/AAP

When water is scarce, we can’t afford to neglect the alternatives to desalination

Cities relied entirely on conserving and recycling water to get through the last big drought. We now have desalination plants, but getting the most out of our water reserves still makes sense.
The largest desalination plant in Australia, Victoria’s A$3.5 billion ‘water factory’ can supply nearly a third of Melbourne’s needs. Nils Versemann/Shutterstock

Cities turn to desalination for water security, but at what cost?

Sydney and Melbourne are bringing desalination plants back on stream and Adelaide plans to increase its plant’s output. Perth depends on desalination. But is it the best way to achieve water security?
Which council has Australia’s best-tasting water? Arthur Chapman/Flickr

Why does some tap water taste weird?

Every year councils around Australia compete to prove they have the best-tasting tap water in the country.
Some homes in Cape Town are now harvesting rainwater from their roofs. Flickr/Inhabitat

How the world needs to change as regions get drier

Water is increasingly becoming scarce as the climate changes. There are four changes that cities can make to adapt to water scarcity.
The Thomson Dam, Melbourne’s largest water storage, dropped to only 16% of capacity in the last big drought. Melbourne Water/flickr

This is what Australia’s growing cities need to do to avoid running dry

Australian cities have turned to some very costly solutions when water is scarce. But as the world’s second-highest users of water per person, more efficient use and recycling are key.

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