How Does Desalination Impact Our Society?

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Fresh water makes up only one percent of our planet’s water compared to salt water which makes up ninety-seven percent. The growing need for water alongside an expanding number of dry spells implies that numerous communities can not depend on a lone source as a water supply. Therefore, we must use desalination technology to clean up the salty water supply. What is desalination you ask? Desalination, or desalting, is the procedure of expelling dissolved salts and minerals from seawater. [1] This technology has positively impacted our society in two major ways. It is used so that we are able to convert salt water into fresh water as a drinking source and as a source for for irrigation purposes. Desalination has been around for thousands and thousands of years. Some of the earliest writings suggest that even in earliest times, people have been baffled with their incapability to drink salt water. Early sailors would boil water to evaporate fresh water away from the salt and Romans used clay filters to trap salt. [2] In China, approximately 2000 years ago there were reports of desalting using specially woven bamboo sheeting and earthenware filters. [3] Desalination has been a positive impact for as long as we can remember and now, with technology growing at …show more content…
Reverse osmosis is when you force water through semi-permeable membranes to dispose of salts and other different pollutions. In today’s world, desalination is centered around creating savvy yet cost-effective methods for producing fresh water for people to use in areas where the accessibility of fresh water is, or is getting to be, constrained. Over the years there has been a dramatic decrease in the cost of performing desalination. “The cost of turning 1,000 gallons of seawater into drinking water using reverse osmosis membranes has decreased by a factor of seven—from approximately $15 in 1960 to roughly $2.50 currently.”