Negative Effects Of Desalination On The Environment

The desalination process requires the use of a lot more natural resources and what is left creates a never ending cycle of issues to the environment, the economy, our health and local ecosystems. Unfortunately, countries that cannot afford to pay for the high costs of desalination plants have to search for a cheaper alternative to help them meet their water needs as desalination plants cost millions of dollars to build and maintain. The construction of desalination plants and its function has an overall negative effect on the environment since it harms the biodiversity of the nearby ecosystems through the desalination process. As a result, fishermen will have a hard time looking for seafood as plants and animals are sucked up by desalination

Industrial corporations have continuously used bodies of water to their advantage by having their factories use water as an energy source and trash bin. Toxic chemicals are released by these factories and sometimes directly dumped back into the water. Aquatic plants benefit from the carbon dioxide released by factories, but too much can harm the biodiversity of that ecosystem and other marine life and acidity levels will also rise. A bigger population means more consumption and as the human consumption has increased throughout the years, landfills have been overflowed by large amounts of trash. When liquids and other materials begin to degrade, they release a juice that can be toxic if consumed. Leachate can not only be stored by the soil and make it less fertile, but also contaminate the source of water that is close by. This liquid can completely ruin the whole water system for those that depended on it. Water pollution has increased over the last couple of years and “in the U.S. 40% of rivers and lakes are considered too polluted to support normal activities”

Saudi Arabia has been able to produce 230 million gallons of water per day thanks to the Dupont company that has been able to reduce the amount of energy reverse osmosis uses when compared to multi-stage flash distillation. Multi-stage flash distillation has not only reduced the energy footprint of a desalination plant, but also their waste. With the desalination plants’ leftover steam, electrical power plants that run on heat can use the steam to drive the wind turbines. Sorek is a desalination plant, and it has also improved the desalination process by using lava to remove bacteria before the desalination process and reduce the amount of waste that usually ends up being harmful to the environment. Scientists and professors have been on the hunt for solutions that can help reduce the hazardous waste of desalination plants. Farid Benyahia is a professor at a university and he proposes that combining two chemicals— such as ammonium chloride and calcium oxide— together can produce a third chemical called calcium chloride, that can easily be recycled. If desalination plants continue to be seen as a practical solution, desalination can truly be the answer to our water crisis if it is environmentally