Vicente Zarate
Professor Foster
English 100
November 21, 2013

“Desalination of Seawater”
Water is extremely essential to every human in this world. The scarcity of water has increased in the past decades due to the overpopulation of humans. Today, we found ourselves in a critical stage where most people have not realized the consequences for the future generations. The government is investing economic resources to find innovative methods to produce fresh water. The process that removes salt from sea waters is the desalination of sea waters to breed freshwater. This process of converting seawater to clean water has caused an answer too many countries. Countries from the Middle East where there is a massive crisis of clean water, they are recurring to this cost-effective process to the solution of the water crisis. Humans cannot drink salty water, but saline water can be made into freshwater, which people need every day to live. The process is called desalination, and as the lack of fresh water grow more countries will use it to provide drinking water. Fresh water will be in short supply in some part of the United States and the world. As the population continues to grow, the lack of fresh water will appear more frequently. In many desert regions of the world including United States, the drought of fresh water resources has been critical, and it will be increasingly influential in the future.
The water problem needs to be considered seriously as fossil energy resources to continue the factors of the world stability. Desert regions simply do not have rivers, lakes that provide with the supply of fresh water and have only few underground water resources such as wells. The technique of desalination is one of the earliest forms of water treatment and its popularity has been the key to the world today (Perlman, Howard). Is seawater the solution to solve freshwater crisis? According to the United Nations, there are more than 1 billion people living in areas where water is running out, and that number could rise to 1.8 billion by 2025 ("Tapping the oceans."). The process of desalination is fundamental for those people that suffer for not having enough water. Scientists predict that by 2016, the amount that the amount of fresh water produced by desalination plants will exceed 10 billion gallons (38 million cubic meters) a year or double the rate in 2008 (Than, Ker). This means that there are innovative ways or techniques that productivity is at its highest level. The conversion of seawater to freshwater it is highly beneficial for the future as the freshwater runs out and people are living in areas where there is a lack of fresh water. Scientists are preoccupied about developing new and even ideas that make a change in water desalination. Today, in desalination plants, use a technology called reverse osmosis where the seawater is pressured into a small plastic membrane used as a barrier. The solid particles such as salt are unable to pass through the plastic layer, and water is able to filtered out and pour out to the other side (Than, Ker). In Europe, this technique has gained a greater acceptance because of its lower consumption of energy (Perlman, Howard). Early methods of water desalination used a considerable amount of energy than reverse osmosis, such as the heating of seawater (mg). As technology advances, we are taking advantage of creating new techniques of water desalination. This is a significant advantage for human beings and living things that are been affected of the lack of clean water. As the demand of desalination seawater increases, researchers will need to find solutions to manage and provide inverse osmosis plants at a lower price.
The most difficult and negative aspects of the desalination of seawater are the cost. In the United States, nearly all seawater desalination plants are small systems used for high valued commercial and business needs. President John F. Kennedy was the first one to introduce this innovative design of large-scale ocean desalination to United States half a century ago. “If we could ever competitively—at a cheap rate—get fresh water from salt water,” observed President John Kennedy nearly 50 years ago, “that would be in the long-range interest of humanity, and would really dwarf any other scientific accomplishment” ("Tapping the oceans"). This futuristic design has firmly remained in North America and even water-poor regions like the Middle East, and Singapore have installed sizable plants (Berringer, Felicity). As the population increases in the United States, and the lack of freshwater continues the idea of desalination of seawater needs to be accomplish. In Carlsbad, California, the inverse osmosis plant cost $1 billion with an affordable technology and showing that the desalination is not an energy-sucking. There are many critics that claim the cost of the plant but now the plant is on the menu of water sources that United States will need in the future. The plant in Carlsbad is being considered for several specialists not only for the performance, nor the impact on the marine environment, instead in the financial structure (Berringer, Felicity). The facility is the largest in the Western Hemisphere, producing 50 million gallons of drinking water a day, enough to supply about 100,000 homes. The desalination of seawater is an effective way to provide fresh water in the Middle East and other arid regions. In the world, there are 13,080 desalination plants that offer more than 12 billion gallons of freshwater a day (Kranhold, Kathryn). All the plants together make up to 55.6 million cubic meters of fresh water a day. About half of productivity is in the Middle East because desalination requires large amounts of energy and the price is expensive as much as treating a watercourse or groundwater. The energy in wealthy-oil nations is cheap, and the water is almost extinct ("Tapping the oceans”). The idea of having plants working for the future is a worthwhile investment towards the new generation of humans. This investment will benefit many people that will require the assistance of freshwater. Many critics may say that it is not worth investing into new inverse osmosis plants but in reality the investment is for the new generations. People should support the desalination of seawater and finance new inverse osmosis plants at any costs. They are several proposals of seawater desalination plants in California. One at Huntington Beach, sixty miles north of Carlsbad and one at the Marine Corps base, Camp Pendleton. As the desalination plant is working, the San Diego County Water Authority made a deal to come around 48,000 acre-feet of water from the desalination plant each year. The price for one acre-foot is $2,000. To sustain two families of four members for a year, they will need one acre-foot that equals 326,000 gallons of water. The prices will eventually be reduced as population growths and the need for desalinated water will increase. In 30, years, the government will have to pay $3 billion for only 7 percent of the region’s water needs (Berringer, Felicity). In conclusion, the number that pays the 7 percent of the region’s water needs it is extremely expensive for a city. According to the New York Times, the project’s costs to build new plants that are financed by two bond offerings of a total of $734 million and a $189 million investment. The water sector is committing about $80 million to other needs. These agreements have their pros and cons. The water sector is responsible for constructing a 10-mile pipeline to carry the water on its way to San Diego’s taps (Berringer, Felicity). The citizens of San Diego should be happy about how high officials of United States are looking towards San Diego as a future solution. There are some factors that San Diego has been chosen to construct new desalination plants, but the community should be supportive.
United States is working to implement new plants. Recently, Texas has turned to the Gulf of Mexico into a long-term source of fresh drinking water. They are investing $2 million to investigate the possibility of building a natural gas-fired power plant next to a seawater desalination plant. The mission is to produce electricity and freshwater for Texans. Both are a fundamental to keep up with Texas’ stable growth. The idea of having both plants near is for an inexpensive power supply, making the overall project inexpensive. The natural gas could power the electrical generator to provide with electricity in the state of Texas (Guardiola, John).
The technique of desalination is one of the earliest forms of water treatment and its popularity has been the solution to the world today (Perlman, Howard). Not only is United States proposing to build new water desalination plants. The rest of the world is concern about building new plants. Some Australian cities are planning on constructing massive desalination plants near Melbourne. The expected cost is about $2.9 billion. Also, London is building one. According to Global Water Intelligence, the projection for desalination capacity will double by 2015 ("Tapping the oceans").
It has been demonstrated that planet Earth is running out of water, and people are working to repair this mistake. The technique of water desalination is a vital tool for the future. The population is still growing, and almost all natural resources are becoming extinct. Water conservation is supremely crucial in this time since it will ensure that water supply is assured in the near future. It is also highly essential because water is relied on by millions of humans and creatures in the world. Building new desalination plants can be the answer for the world and future generations.

Works Cited
Barringer, Felicity. "In California, What Price Water?" The New York Times [Carlsbad] 28 Feb. 2013: n. pag. Web.
Guardiola, John. "New Study to Research Turning Gulf of Mexico into Fresh Drinking Water Resource." - WaterWorld. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. <http://www.waterworld.com/articles/2013/04/new-study-to-research-turning-gulf-of-mexico-into-fresh-drinking.html>.
Kranhold, Howard. "Saline Water: Desalination." Desalination: Drink a Cup of Seawater? N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. <http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/drinkseawater.html>.
Kranhold, Kathryn. "Water, Water, Everywhere..." The Wall Street Journal. N.p., 17 Jan. 2008. Web.
"Tapping the Oceans." The Economist 5 June 2008: n. pag. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. <http://www.economist.com/node/11484059>.
Than, Ker. "Could Seawater Solve the Freshwater Crisis?" National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 05 Aug. 2011. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.