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| Africa North |
| Drought-hit North Africa turns to purified sea and wastewater |
| 2023-07-28 |
| [AFRICANEWS] From Tunisia to Morocco, sun-baked North Africa has embarked on a building spree of plants that purify sea and wastewater as climate change intensifies droughts in the water-scarce region. Across the Maghreb region, which takes in parts of the Sahara and is plagued by scorching summer heat, countries are banking on new desalination plants and facilities that can purify wastewater for farming. In Tunisia, struggling through its fourth year of drought, engineers recently inspected a desalination plant being built in the southern town of Zarat on the Mediterranean coast. Across the region, "the only solution is the desalination of seawater for human consumption", said Mosbeh Helali, outgoing CEO of Sonede, the company constructing the plant. The World Bank predicts that by 2030, the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region will fall below the absolute water scarcity threshold of 500 cubic metres per person per year. Ironically, most of MENA's existing desalination plants are powered by the very fossil fuels that belch carbon into the atmosphere, driving the global heating that is now intensifying droughts. A large Saudi desalination plant, Al Khafji, runs on solar power, and Egypt is also planning facilities set to run on renewables -- but most existing plants rely on the climate killers oil, gas or coal. No bias there. Climate killers. Scientists and environmentalists also warn of the impact on marine life as the plants dump the extracted salt back into the sea as concentrated sludge. Helali insisted this hasn't been a problem in Tunisia, where there had even been "a proliferation of aquatic life" around some discharge points, making those waters "highly prized by fishermen". Despite concerns around energy-guzzling desalination, North African countries are embracing it as their fast-growing populations pile ever more pressure on shrinking groundwater tables and dam reservoirs. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 Anheuser-Busch may be able to help out there? |
| Posted by: OregonDave 2023-07-28 13:31 |
| #3 ^^^ I think the water will eventually return to the Mediterranean as people use it and it runs off throught the sewer systems? Or did I miss something? |
| Posted by: Tom 2023-07-28 11:46 |
| #2 Scientists and environmentalists also warn of the impact on marine life as the plants dump the extracted salt back into the sea as concentrated sludge. Drinking their designer bottled water in their foreign think tanks. |
| Posted by: magpie 2023-07-28 00:21 |
| #1 Can icebergs be towed to water-starved cities? |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2023-07-28 00:04 |