Drinking too much water, people are making the sea ... more salty

Areas that do not have enough drinking water often switch to desalination solutions, the process of removing salt in seawater to make it drinkable. But now, researchers are concerned that the coating products of this process will devastate sensitive marine ecosystems.

" The increase in salinity is one of the most important environmental problems in the 21st century , " said Amy Childress, a researcher at the University of Southern California who studies the effects of desalination processes. in an interview with New Scientist magazine.

Most desalination plants pump this excess concentrated salt back into the ocean.

Operation of desalination plants

A desalination technique is called reverse osmosis , in which saline water flows through a membrane that prevents salt from passing. Then, on one side of the membrane, people will get the drinkable water, and on the other side, you will have concentrated salt water with double salinity compared to normal seawater.

Most desalination plants pump this excess concentrated salt back into the ocean. But researchers like Childress fear that this will hurt salinity-sensitive organisms such as red abalone or giant kelp, which is home to many different marine species.

No waste

To avoid such potential consequences, a proposal was made that plants could dilute this excess salt water with fresh water that was not suitable for drinking, but clean enough to pump back to the sea. It will make producers a step further in the process of providing this vital resource to humans - but it really deserves because it can preserve the sensitive environment of the ocean.

Clearly we have some bottlenecks that need to be addressed with this desalination process. And with 4 billion people facing water scarcity, dehydration becomes even more necessary, but it is not worth it if it comes with the ocean environment to suffer from the thirst of who we are.