DESALINATION AS A CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION OPTION IN WATER-SCARCE COUNTRIES

Desalination is a water supply option that is used widely around the world and involves taking the salt out of water to make it drinkable. Many countries and in particular scarce-water ones use desalination as a way of creating a more reliable water supply that is not dependent on rain. Desalination offers several advantages over other water supply options because it taps a virtually infinite resource that is more immune to political or social claims than conventional hydraulic works. Desalination provides a climate-independent source of water for critical human needs and economic development (industry and agriculture in particular). It is an effective way to secure water supplies against the effects of climate change, a growing population, economic activities and drought. In general, desalination is often the last resort to address water supply security and/or quality. This is due to the higher cost of production, compared with traditional water resources, except when the latter is scarce due to drought and/or political situation. Therefore, to ensure water security and face the increasing water scarcity, the Arab region has not many options, and one of the most important options is undoubtedly adopting sustainable desalination technologies. However, the separation of salts from seawater requires large amounts of energy which, when produced from fossil fuels, can increase environmental pollution and exacerbate the earth’s climate-related problems. There is, therefore, a need to employ environmentally friendly energysources such as renewables to desalinate seawater and brackish water. Since the energy requirements in desalination processes play a decisive role, it appears attractive to consider renewable energies (RE), because it offers a sustainable and secure way to desalinate water. There is a great potential to develop solar desalination technologies in scarce-water countries where the solar source is abundant and the installed photovoltaic (PV) costs are declining. However, several issues related to this technology at large scale are yet to be solved.