Desalination
Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink!
A very apt statement, although it might seem strange when everyone, is talking about flood prevention, but global warming means that the drier areas of the world get even less rain and the wetter areas get more! Just another paradox.
As tourism develops in some countries, seasonal water shortages may increase, hotter drier weather means more tourists and a resulting benefit to the local economy, but less rainfall resulting in taps running dry! Although desalination is not a cheap option it is often the only one, the increased tourism can fund the desalination plants and provide year round water for the local inhabitants. The water for treatment will come either from the sea, aquifers or bore holes, it is then treated to WHO standards and stored in large tanks. The water is chlorinated or treated by ultraviolet to ensure sterility. David has been involved with desalination for a long time, below is a general idea of the type of schemes he has been involved in.
Back in 1983 drinking water was more expensive than petrol in many parts of the Middle East. Reverse Osmosis (RO) was very much in its infancy, in a three year period DT along with a team of good expats designed and installed 540 desalination schemes. Mobile RO plants were placed along side oil pipelines under construction, providing water for construction camps and acting as mobile oasis for nomads and camels alike. Nearly all the military camps and boarder posts had our desalination and sewage treatment plants plus the odd swimming pool! Water was taken from deep and shallow bore holes and newly constructed beach wells (using the natural ground conditions to reduce the pre-treatment requirements). RO is quite inefficient, in terms of conversion volume ratios i.e.100 M3 of brackish bore hole water would only produce at best 25 M3 of potable drinking water. The concentrated brine water discharged from the RO process, say 75 M3 was stored in lagoons, these lagoons created animal and bird habitats. The largest scheme David designed was 2,300 M3/day of drinking (potable) water with associated pre/post treatment and storage.
If you have a requirement for desalination, or another form of water treatment please contact David direct.
