Water Desalination

[bozley05]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,15887156%255E30417,00.html

I know it isn't new and the Arabs having been using it for quite a while, but is it the future for the worlds water supply?

Here in Australia, we are in the middle of a really bad drought, and in New South Wales it is so bad they are having to turn to desalination.

People are opposing it, but when we need drinking water, do the pros outway the cons in treating sea water?

[Becca]

I don't think it's a bad idea. We do need water to survive, and I don't think there's any question to be made when we are talking about survival. So, unless there is an alternative to whatever water problem a place may have, I'd say it is fine to go ahead with it.

Of course, it would be ideal if we found a way to proceed with the desalination in a way that it wouldn't be as bad for either nature or people's pockets, but when there's no option...there's no option. Perhaps the future will hold a better solution.

[Meksilon]

If it is we can look forward to expensive water. Personally, I'd rather they recycle sewage... it's cheaper and comes out cleaner than desalination (cleaner than the drinking water we have now as well). Either use that, or if people are going to whine about drinking processed sewage water than make personal-home sewage recycling compulsory (in newly built homes anyway... like fire alarms), and people can just use the recycled water in their toilets and to water the garden, wash the car etc and can use standard tap water for drinking and showers, washing the clothes and dishes etc.

There are already homes like this.

That idea gets around people whining about drinking or bathing in processed sewage water, their water bills will be cheaper because they're re-using the shower and washing-machine water to water their gardens and for use in the toilet flush, etc and the dam levels will rise as a result. The next step you could take 10-15 years after that is to make tanked water compulsory as well. Homes with their own tank-water and with personal sewage recycling can even function self-sufficiently for water in some areas.

Desalination, honestly, while it sounds great and it works great is just way too expensive. It's not a bad idea, however I'd much rather a solution that will result in cheaper water bills, than one that requires lots of tax money and results in more expensive water bills.

[bozley05]

As technology gets better, the treatment process will improve and cost less. Look at how far reverse ozmosis has come in the last 10 years, same process, but has got alot cheaper to build/maintain the filter thingy.

[Meksilon]

I'm not sure how technology is going to get better. Right now there's the "Multi-Stage Flash" approach (using "flash evaporation" to separate salt from the water) and "reverse osmosis" which you mentioned (using filters to allow salt water to try and equalize the saline content with fresh water, but actually separates the salty water so the salt is left behind). Yeah it's improved, but it's still a slow and expensive processes. Maybe there could be a development of a freezing process that would out-do these methods? But I don't really see how technology is going to improve any of these methods.

[bozley05]

http://www.crystalcreekwater.com.au/

I did a project for this dude... And he says that the reverse osmosis process is dirt cheap once you have the equipment setup. I'm not sure about on a huge scale, but certainly at a commercial/residential level.

It would be very viable for people to setup a system that turns household grey water into re-usable drinking water. I would drink filtered grey water, but not sewage, no way!

I think all states should have to collect, filter and return storm water into water system, rather than let it go to into the bay/ocean.

[Meksilon]

I think all states should have to collect, filter and return storm water into water system, rather than let it go to into the bay/ocean.Yes that's definatly another important step.

[niv]

Industry should really keep abreast of this, especially since they are the number 1 consumer of the world's fresh water supply.

[tandoc]

Industry should really keep abreast of this, especially since they are the number 1 consumer of the world's fresh water supply.

They are the proposed primary customer for the desalinated water -- or so the news report on it said last night...

[bozley05]

Here in Melbourne, our CityLink tunnel uses fresh drinking water, or at least did for a few years, to keep the tunnel stable, because it was cheaper than recycling water. It is stupid uses of water like that which annoy me.