Desalination: an overview

Fresh water scarcity is already posing major problems for more than a billion people around the world, mostly in arid developing countries. The World Health Organization predicts that by mid-century, four billion of us—nearly two-thirds of the world’s present population—will face severe fresh water shortages.

Population Growth Drives Quest for Water by Desalination
With human population expected to balloon another 50 percent by 2050, resource managers are increasingly looking to alternative scenarios for quenching the world's growing thirst. Desalination—a process whereby highly pressurized ocean water is pushed through tiny membrane filters and distilled into drinking water—is being held forth by some as one of the most promising solutions to the problem. 

Desalination is incredibly energy intensive, and if fossil fuels are used to achieve this then it's probably not a very sustainable practice.

Solar Desalination:

Solar powered water desalination has the potential to dramatically increase access to fresh water in many arid locations. As a solar powered desalination plant opens in some part of the world.

I will start uploading pictures of desalination plants slowly to this blog series.

Best