Desalination Plants the Answer

One solution to meet the shortages of drinking water in the world today is desalination plants. So I did some research to see how feasible these plants are as an actual solution. There are conflicting viewpoints to the problem. Some see desalination plants as a way to solve water shortages. It is effective for countries near the ocean. Australia and Spain use desalination plants to meet their water needs, but its the Middle East that has truly embraced the technology. The Middle East gets over 60 percent of its water from desalination plants (according to the WWF). 

While being quite effective at meeting water needs, I have come to see them as a quick fix. Like so many issues that we face today, we as humans tend to choose the most available quick fix without looking at the larger issue. Desalination plants are very energy intensive, pollute the environment, and leave excess salt in nearby ecosystems. The WWF argues that by polluting the environment and using being very energy intensive, these plants are contributing to global warming that exacerbate droughts and melt global ice caps that contribute 69 percent of the worlds freshwater. So they are actually reducing the world's freshwater supply. Ulitimately I have to agree. These countries would do better to practice water conservation and begin recycling their water.