Would you like some saltwater with that? You would probably answer, “No, thank you”! But some people don’t have the option. That’s where desalination becomes important.
Desalination is the process of removing salt from water so it can be used for irrigation, agriculture, and drinking. In fact, 97% of earth’s water is saltwater. One method of desalination is called Saltwater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO). In this method, there is saltwater on one side of a tank, and freshwater on the other side. The liquids are separated by a type of membrane. Pressure is put on the saltwater side, and the water passes through the membrane to the freshwater side, leaving the salt.
Countries all over the world don’t have enough money for desalination plants. Because of this, women have to walk miles every day to get water even though they live near the ocean. The water that they get isn’t even clean. Desalination will really help.
Desalination plants cost a lot of money to build. The costs range from $3.2 million to $400 million, depending on the size of the plant. Some countries like Saudia Arabia have enough money for a plant because they own the world’s largest reserves of oil. Other places like Africa don’t have enough money. Even though desalination is helpful, it can be harmful to the environment.
Sometimes things in the environment, like small fish eggs and plankton, near the plant can be harmed. The discharge could also harm ecosystems surrounding the plant, and the owners can’t put the salt back into the water. The concentration would get to be too much. It’s harmful to marine life.
A new and better way of desalinating water has to be found. It could be invented soon. Who knows, maybe you’ll be the one to invent it.
Image was found on http://hbfreshwater.com/desalination-101/desalination-worldwide
Written by students in 1st, 2nd, 7th and 8th hour classes. Sarah, Emily, Connor, Jake, Emma, Emma, Bella, Isaac, Caroline, Paige, Graham, Abbey, and Will. We used Google Docs to research our topic and saved everything so people could all have access. Then we wrote our paper, one paragraph each hour.
interesting facts! i learn something knew every day!
cool im learning something new every day
Your information is presented concisely and I especially like the graphic that further supports the topic. It will be young scientist citizens like you that will care enough about an issue like this to want to make a difference. Keep thinking about what you can do now and what you can do when you ‘grow up’ to make this difference!