Arguments For and Against Desalination

As the title suggests, this essay will explore some of the arguments for and against
desalination – the removal of not only salts and minerals but also seaweed and jellyfish from
saline seawater via a process called reverse osmosis, thereby making seawater drinkable and
safe for human consumption.

Perhaps the most significant advantage of desalination, coming from an environmental

perspective, is that it is a very, very sustainable source of water. It is a sustainable source of
water because of the sheer size of the (Indian) Ocean. By tapping into this finite albeit
virtually inexhaustible resource, desalination plants can provide a steady, reliable, and highly
climate-resilient water source. In times of uncertain climate change and associated water
problems such as prolonged droughts, heatwaves, algal blooms, tannins, salinity and poor
water quality, this technological innovation can be very useful and reassuring.

Recently, policy-makers have also realised renewable energy as a potential contributor to the
energy mix required in running an energy intensive desalination plant. In this way, the long-
term negative impacts of pollution can be effectively minimised. A low carbon footprint is
not the only advantage of desalination plants, which can also relieve some of the pressures
placed on natural earth systems, mainly surface water and groundwater, the latter being
stored in the form of aquifers.

That said, desalination, especially when poorly managed can wreak havoc to marine life
because of the uneven distribution and hence concentration of salt and also the temperature of
the water. Fish are very sensitive to any sudden fluctuations in temperature and concentration
of salt. Luckily, this problem can be partially negated by moving the discharge pipe further
offshore where ocean currents tend to restore the natural equilibrium much quicker than
would be the case closer to the shoreline. Recently, there has been a lot of innovation within
the water management community. In order to keep long-term levels of salt in the ocean
sustainable, desalination plants in Perth’s Kwinana only keep 50% of the desalinated water
for human consumption, the remaining 50% is returned back into the Indian Ocean, as this
presents the only way to minimise biodiversity loss and keep desalination sustainable.

However, as is the case with most natural earth systems interactions, desalination is not
without its own unique set of costs, challenges and trade-offs. Desalination plants, for one,
are extremely space extensive functions. For reasons of geographical proximity, desalination
plants are built close to the beach on high land values usually reserved for highly profitable
residential, recreational and tourism purposes. A less obvious disadvantage of desalination –
but one which is nevertheless important and worth exploring – is that it allows people to live
in extremely isolated places in the desert, where there are no obvious natural abundant water
sources available. This is of particular concern in the Perth Metropolitan Area which is often
brought into context as being the most isolated major city on the planet. The nearest major
city Adelaide is situated 2200 km east of Perth. The next thing to say is that Perth is also one
of the fastest growing cities in the world and the city with the highest population growth rate
in Australia. Given these facts and factoring in the effects of climate change, it is likely that
Perth will face problems with its water supply in the near future.

Furthermore, there is a danger that desalination blinds improvements in managing water in a

more sustainable manner because desalination in itself does nothing to address the real issues
of declining rainfall and climate change. For instance, desalination does not encourage
efficient water usage, with the average water consumption in Perth still at a very high 300
litres of water a day for one person. Needless to say, this is unsustainable for a city such as
Perth which has been facing steadily declining rainfall since 1970 when climate change first
began to take hold. During this time, little has been done to reduce emissions and land use
change / loss of vegetation cover – the root causes of climate change and associated
diminishing rainfall. Public education is desperately needed.

Moving on to economics and we find some compelling reasons why desalination is indeed
important and even inevitable if the economy is to keep humming along nice and strong.
Water is the second most important thing we need for survival – after (clean) air. When this
need is not met in sufficient quantities, the economy goes into recession. By deciding to build
a desalination plant the government can ensure that living standards are maintained and
Australia remains among developed countries. It should not escape notice that only a very
small percentage of water is used for drinking. Agriculture, which is an important
comparative advantage for Australia, requires up to 70% of the total water budget. Industry,
which is so crucial for growth and prosperity, requires a further 20%. Hence, desalination, it
can be concluded, is a critical driver of economic growth, stimulating the economy
throughout the primary and secondary sectors. Desalination plants can even create jobs which
will reduce unemployment and further stimulate the economy.
On the flipside, desalination plants can be hard to sell to the public because of the high
economic costs involved in construction and maintenance of this cutting-edge technology.
But in fact this represents an injection into the economy, because jobs in the construction
industry are created; income is earned and spent in the economy, boosting the rate of
economic growth. That said, only super-rich economies in the Global North such as Australia
and Saudi Arabia can afford desalination plants. In places where desalination plants would be
much-needed such as in widespread parts of Africa, economic water scarcity prevents
countries from adopting this innovative technology.

Lastly, the social side of desalination. Desalination plants are almost always allocated
separate land uses from residential areas so as to avoid land use conflict. As a result, there are
no reasons for people to be perturbed by any loss of greenspace, for instance. Instead,
desalination plants are usually situated in heavy industrial areas on the periphery of the city.
The water quality of desalinated water may differ slightly from normally obtained water from
groundwater and surface water from dams and weirs. But this effect is minimal because the
desalinated water is diluted with the groundwater and surface water. Instead the population is
usually comforted by having a steady, reliable supply of water irrespective of prolonged
droughts, heatwaves and dry spells.

By having examined the logic and risks of desalination; the benefits and the costs, we find
evidence that the benefits far outweigh the costs. The benefits in this case constitute a steady,
reliable water supply where there would otherwise be great water shortage in places of
particularly arid climates and times of droughts and heatwaves. Looking ahead we can expect
desalination to become increasingly important for growing cities such as Perth to secure their
diminishing natural water supply. Cities should embrace this technological advance even if
desalination is not without its costs. The costs include potential threats to marine life; loss of
recreational and retail space; air and noise pollution; the economic costs of construction and
maintenance of pipelines; and diminished water quality. There are trade-offs to everything.
Nonetheless, we can conclude with confidence that desalination is needed in Australia and is
indeed a technology for the future.
REFERENCES

1) El-Dessouky, H.T.; Ettouney, H.M, 2002, Fundamentals of Salt Water Desalination,

2) Latteman, S., 2010, Development of an Environmental Impact Assessment and

Decision Support System for Seawater Desalination Plants, CRC Press.

3) Menachim, E and Willam, P., 2011, The Future of Seawater Desalination: Energy,
Technology, and the Environment, Science: Vol. 333 no. 6043 pp. 712-717.

4) Miller et al., 2015, Energy and environmental issues in desalination, ScienceDirect,

Vol.366, pp.2-8

5) Vouchkov et al., Desalination Technology Health and Environmental Impacts, CRC

Press, pp. 156-173.