DESALINATION……WHAT IS IT?

The most frequently and enthusiastically promoted remedy for alleviating the long-term water shortage in Cyprus is desalination. This involves the construction of mobile or fixed desalination plants or units that will remove the salt from seawater in order to manufacture drinkable water.

This process has several important environmental and economic impacts. We should therefore be asking some questions regarding its suitability as a solution for the water supply problem that Cyprus faces due to cyclical droughts and the projected deteriorating conditions that Cyprus will face in the future due to the effects of climate change in the Mediterranean.

- What is desalination?
- What are the costs and benefits of desalination? What are the alternatives to desalination?
These questions are comprehensively answered in the WWF report Making Water.

Desalination: option or distraction for a thirsty world? (June 2007).
The major economic impact is clearly stated in the report: desalination is the most energy intensive method of water manufacture. The energy required by the process will add to the total carbon emissions of Cyprus at a time when we should be working towards a reduction in order to meet EU targets. Failure to meet these targets will result in large fines that will inevitably be passed on to the general consumer through higher electricity bills. This is believed by some to outweigh the benefits of choosing desalination as a solution in preference to alternative methods of water supply management. Renewable energy such as solar is generally considered unviable for large-scale desalination due to cost and large areas of expensive coastal land required at current levels of the technology.

The environmental impacts of the process affect the marine ecosystems through the location of the intake and discharge structures, especially near sensitive marine or coastal environments. Seawater is a habitat for the many small life forms that will disappear up the intake pipe, resulting in long-term depletion of plankton, eggs and fish larvae.

Discharging the heated brine back into the sea alters the delicate and important salinity balance of the marine ecosystem through a rise in temperature and concentration of products such as salt and boron. It is acknowledged that temperature and salt content of seawater is critical for the reproduction and survival of marine species. Additional pollution occurs through contamination with corrosion by-products.

Issues of sustainability also arise. Other Mediterranean countries have seen an explosion of development based on the assumption of water availability. The WWF report states that
“Spain’s natural environments, many of its nature reserves and indeed, the natural assets found attractive by so many of the foreign residents and tourists are being damaged by the development which is underwritten by an assumption that water will always be available and be made available – whatever the economic, environmental and political costs.” (p. 35)
It can be argued that, for similar reasons, multiple desalination units could pose a comparable, significant threat to the unique Cyprus environment. Is this what we want? Some may think that we are getting close to it in certain areas of the Paphos district.

Desalination is a manufacturing process, i.e. industrial water; desalination is a distraction from water conservation, water efficiency, and water recycling; desalination is a pollutant; desalination is expensive.

Island-wide average loss from leakages is estimated to be 30%. Paphos actually exceeds this figure, with up to 35% lost between 1999 and 2005, to a cost of euros 3.5 million. In light of these losses, wouldn’t it be wiser to put resources into upgrading delivery systems rather than trying to fix the water problem through costly desalination? There is much talk of mobile units for hotels but the cost is higher for such small units, reaching up to euros 1.5 per cubic metre. In addition, there are concerns about intrusions into protected coastal zones and the government’s recent decision to waive environmental impact assessments for desalination units producing up to 1,500 cubic metres per day.

All of us in Cyprus must first develop and foster a better water conservation consciousness before we stumble into drastic solutions such as desalination.

What are the alternatives?
The alternatives would first and foremost be
A unified policy for water use and management that would address supply and distribution through water storage and conservation, e.g. repair and renewal of the network of pipes; rainwater collection; prevention of evaporation from swimming pools; domestic, industrial and commercial water recycling; supply of water for agriculture from treatment plants; legislation for mandatory installation of water saving measures and technology in new buildings etc. In other words, a sustainable policy for water.