Global water desalination is a process that removes salt and other minerals from seawater to produce fresh water that is suitable for human consumption or irrigation. As populations continue to grow rapidly and freshwater resources face increasing pressures, seawater desalination is becoming an important strategy to augment water supplies in many coastal regions around the world.

History and Development of Desalination Technologies

The earliest recorded examples of Global Water Desalination date back to ancient Greece and the Middle East where distillation methods were used to produce small amounts of fresh water. Modern desalination began in the 1950s with the emergence of membrane technologies like reverse osmosis that allowed for more efficient and cost-effective desalination at larger scales. Early plants mainly relied on thermal desalination methods like multi-stage flash distillation. However, since the 1980s, most new plants have incorporated reverse osmosis, which uses semipermeable membranes to separate freshwater from seawater through pressure. Major technological advancements continue to be made to improve the energy efficiency and productive capacity of both membrane and thermal desalination systems.

Global Uptake and Installed Capacity

According to recent estimates, over 22,000 desalination plants are now operating worldwide, with total global installed capacity exceeding 100 million cubic meters per day. The Middle East has disproportionately driven the global expansion of desalination capacity due to high rates of population growth and limited alternative water supplies in many Gulf countries. Today, Saudi Arabia has the world's largest desalination capacity at over 4 million cubic meters per day. Other countries with major desalination programs include the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Israel, Australia and Spain. China and India are also beginning to scale up desalination as part of their national water strategies.

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