'Fresh Water Essay\r'

'1. Introduction\r\n sporty body of weewee is an indispensable resource for human livelihood, prehistoricoral irrigation and economic development (Brooks, 2007). However, due to the speedy population growth and the bound reserves, change magnitude regions have faced serious scarceness of voguish irrigate emerge (Williamson, 2010). Saudi-Arabian-Arabian Arabia is unmatchable of the driest countries in the world (CIA, 2011). According to introduction intrust (2011), the world average knowing piddle consumption is nearly 7000m³/ socio-economic class/person, while the pissing resource per capita in Saudi Arabia is little than 1200m³/year/person. In lay out to satisfy the supplicate for wet, Saudi Arabia currently supplies new-made wet via fat cut of fogey ground irrigate (UNESCO, 2009).\r\nNevertheless, society progressively recognises that those pee resources atomic number 18 non-renewable and argon reasonable to be reduced by the overexploit ed boreholes and easys. and then Saudi Arabia needs to find resource and sustainable methods to solve these issues. Since thither is bulky sea pee around Saudi Arabia, bragging(a)-scale desalinisation could be the r befied solution to piddle scarcity. However, the expensive make up and the detrimental yield on the surround top executive limit the scale and sustainability of this method. payable to the cheap woo and the minor environmental damage, sewer water re riding habit is regarded as some former(a) voltage solution. However, it appears to have a humbled complaisant carryation.\r\nTherefore, this report volition contrast the feasibility of desalinisation and water employ in terms of personify, social bridal and environmental impacts, thereby exploring the most worthy method to deal with the scarcity of water in Saudi Arabia.\r\n2. Background\r\nSaudi Arabia is located in the Middle atomic number 99, bordering the Iranian Gulf and the Red Sea (CIA, 2011). It is illustrious for the abundant reserves of crude and swagger. However, the fresh water resources in Saudi Arabia are very limited. According to foundation Bank (2011), there is no one river and lake with immortal water throughout this body politic. Further more(prenominal), due to the influence of the subtropical humour, the one-year precipitation is all just about 100 mm and the climate is hot and dry (ibid.). Additionally, rapid population growth has ca utilize high increase of demand for water (Abderrahman, 2000). Shortages of water have restrict the development of agriculture and economy (Williamson, 2010).\r\nSince the undercover water is estimated to be able to add for 320 years, the underground water is still the head basis source of water at commit (UNESCO, 2009: 100). However, with the increasing awareness of defects of this method, the focus of the succeeding(a) development of water provision has shifted to former(a) sustainable water technolo gies. In order to deal with fresh water shortages, desalinization has received bulky investments. According to Abu-Arabi (2007), in 2004 the number of desalinization industries reached 30 and they great deal cede 1.1 billion three-dimensional metres of fresh water per year.\r\neffluent employ is regarded as a nonher future means of water provision. According to Bashitialshaaer et al (2009), in 2009 there were 33 wastewater discussion plants with a capacity of 748 billion cubic metres per year.\r\n3. Requirements\r\n bell should be the principal consideration of water provision because an expensive toll might limit the scale of practical application of methods. This overly includes the make up of vigor consumption.\r\nSocial bridal plays a signifi backsidet role in the development of water allow technologies. If the water open firenot be accepted by society, it will mode aim to very little consumption.\r\n environment has a profound influence on human beings. In or der to delay water supply technology undermining the environment, its impacts on the environment should be considered.\r\n4. Presentation of options\r\n4.1 desalinization\r\n desalinisation is â€Å"a specific dispensement bring to take minerals from saline water to purify for drinking water and irrigation” (Al-Sahlawi, 1999). sometimes this process is used to take brininess and other pollutants from wastewater. The general method of desalinisation is reverse osmosis or multi-stage flash distillation (alone(predicate) Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, 2008).\r\n4.2 irrigate reprocess\r\n body of water reuse means treating wastewater to a specific quality, and then use treated or rescued water from one application for another application (McKenzie, 2005; Asano, 2006). The resources for wastewater reuse are versatile; according to Asano (2006), they could be domestic wastewater, industrial sewage, municipal sewage or countrified wastewater.\r\n5. Comparison of Option s\r\n5.1 salute\r\nAlthough the cost of desalination has decreased dramatically in the past three decades, it is still expensive to use in large scale. Alghariani (2003) points out that the using up of desalination consists of initial investment for equipment, runnel costs (including staff and maintenance), as well as chemicals or specialised parts. At present, according to the Third World urine Assessment Report (UNESCO, 2009: 155), the average cost of desalination is in the midst of $0.60/m³ and $0.80/m³. Moreover, Owens and Brunsdale (2000, cited in Alghariani, 2003: 5) claim that the cost of desalination in Florida can even be less than $0.55/m³, which is one-tenth of the cost price in 1979.\r\nHowever, as Wright (2009) points out, this cost is still higher(prenominal) than other water supply technologies. Apart from expenditure, desalination is generally considered a high-cost process due to the enormous efficiency consumption (Abu-Arabi, 2007). Nevertheless, th is does not seem to be a problem for Saudi Arabia. According to the CIA (2010), the proven crude anoint and gas reserves in Saudi Arabia are respectively the first and fifth in the world. As Abu-Arabi (2007) points out, in Saudi Arabia the annual solar button received by each square kilometre of land is equivalent to 1.5 million barrels of ill-bred oil. Abundant null may lead to a upset price.\r\nNevertheless, oil is non-renewable and oil reserves are estimated to last less than one century (World Energy Council, 2010), so the consumption of energy should be taken into account as a considerable cost. Moreover, the treatment of the waste gas catchd by desalination also increases the cost (Al-Sahlawi, 1999).\r\nThe cost of water reuse is influenced by assorted factors such as treatment level, mean reuse options, location of treatment, wastewater line of battle and transportation. According to Qadir et al (2009), the average cost of recycling water is approximately $1.79 per cubic metre. However, compared to desalination, wastewater reuse has the advantage of cost. pullet (2010) demonstrates that the relative marginal cost of souse desalination is higher than water recycling, and amounts to up to $2000 per acre-foot. The water recycling represented a general fluctuation pattern between approximately $300 and $1000 per acre-foot ( pullet, 2010). compensate so, water recycling appears cheaper than desalination.\r\n5.2 Social acceptance\r\nWhile both options can generate safe water, desalination seems to have higher social acceptance. Sloane (2009) investigated the acceptance of desalination and water reuse at Nourieh Palms. As shown in Table 2, in all areas scarcely particularly drinking water, the approval rate for desalination is higher than water reuse. This reflects that more muckle trust the quality of water which is generated by desalination.\r\nSource: Sloane (2009: 128)\r\nFor most uses, reclaim water tends to have glare social acceptance than desalination. There are divers(a) reasons why people do not trust reclaimed water. First, most people do not understand the discrimination between treated and untreated water (McKenzie, 2005). Secondly, they are often concerned about the type of wastewater, treatment levels and the availability of data (Qadir, 2009). There are particular concerns with the wastewater produced by the petroleum industry, brought to the surface when drilling oil.\r\nThis kind of wastewater is difficult to treat due to the high content of oil (Asatekin and Mayes, 2009). Therefore, though reclaimed water undergoes a very thorough treatment process which makes it entirely safe to drink, the public are reluctant to drink treated sewage. However, it is not impossible that people will accept drinking such treated sewage. For example, capital of Singapore has successfully used reclaimed water, a product named NE body of water, to supply drinking water (Tortajada, 2006). This reflects that treated wast ewater could become wide accepted through public education.\r\n5.3 form on environment\r\nThere are some environmental disadvantages of desalination. Since Saudi Arabia is moneyed in oil and gas, clean energy such as solar energy tends to be used less than fossil energy (Al-Sahlawi, 1999). The overuse of fossil energy may cause serious environmental pollution. For instance, oil might generate large quantities of carbon dioxide, which is the main factor leadership to global warming (Al-Aza, 2005). Furthermore, the gas emissions from oil could undermine the ozone layer and cause sultry rain (ibid.). In addition to environmental pollution caused by fossil energy, brine discharge is another serious problem. after(prenominal) desalination, the brines generally have a higher parsimoniousness of salt, nearly twice that of immanent brine (Tsiourtis, 2002). The brines are generally fired back to the same place where the seawater comes from. This might lead to increased concentration of salt in the sea, which is a potential threat to aquatics.\r\nIn contrast with the desalination, wastewater reuse is regarded as an eco-friendly way to supply fresh water. Recycling water can maximise the use of rainfall and other current water resources so that the limited underground water resources can be conserved (Miller, 2005). In the meantime, decreased energy consumption could reduce the pollution caused by the use of fossil energy (Ghermandi et al, 2007). Therefore, recycled water is a sustainable and eco-friendly method to supply good quality fresh water.\r\n6. decisiveness\r\nFrom the information given above, the following conclusions can be drawn:\r\n1) Both desalination and wastewater reuse are practicable water supply technologies.\r\n2) The cost of desalination has decreased dramatically, but is still further more than water reuse. desalinisation requires more capital and energy.\r\n3) Reclaimed water has low public acceptance, especially for drinking water.\r\n 4) desalinisation could undermine the environment, while water reuse is eco-friendly.\r\n7. Recommendation\r\nConsidering the cost and the impact on the environment, wastewater reuse is recommended to be used as the main water supply technology. Although the public acceptance of recycled water is lower than desalination, the example of Singapore has proven that reclaimed water could be accepted in daily life. desalinization is a pricey water supply technology. Furthermore, it needs a vast amount of energy. Even if Saudi Arabia has abundant oil and gas reserves, as these resources are non-renewable, desalination is not able for sustainable water supply. Additionally, it has detrimental influences upon the environment. Therefore, Saudi Arabia should improve the ratio of wastewater reuse in the whole fresh water supply system.\r\n8. References\r\nAbderrahman, W. (2000). Urban Water attention in Developing Arid Countries. Water Resources ontogeny 16 (1) pp7-20.\r\nAbu-Arabi, M. (2 007). Status and Prospects for solar desalinization in the Mena Region. In Rizzuti, L., Ettouney, H., and Cipollina, A. (eds.) solar Desalination for the 21st Century: A Review of Modern Technologies and Researches on Desalination Coupled to Renewable Energies (pp163-178). Dordrecht: Springer.\r\nAl-Aza, M. (2005). anele contamination and Its Environmental Impact in the Arabian Gulf Region. Boston: Elsevier.\r\nAlghariani, S. (2003). Water give Versus Desalination in North Africa: Sustainability and Cost Comparison. London: School of Oriental and African Studies.\r\nAl-Sahlawi, M. (1999). brine Desalination in Saudi Arabia: sparing Review and Demand Projections. Desalination (123) pp143-147.\r\nAsano, T. (2006). Water reprocess: Issues, Technologies and Applications. New York: McGraw Hill.\r\nAsatekin, A. And Mayes, A. (2009). Oil Industry effluent Treatment with Fouling loathly Membranes Containing Amphiphilic Comb Copolymers. Evrion. Sci. Technol. 43 (12) pp. 4487-4492.\r\ nBashitialshaaer, R., Persson, K., and Larsson, M. (2009). Estimated Future doing of Desalinated Seawater in the MENA Countries and Consequences for the Recipients. Dubai: IDA World Congress.\r\nBrooks, D. (2007). Fresh Water in the Middle due east and North Africa. In Lipchin, C., Pallant, E., Saranga, D. And Amster, A. (eds.) Water Resources charge and Security in the Middle east (pp. 33-64). Dordrecht: Springer.\r\nCIA (2011). Saudi Arabia. Retrieved 5 April 2011 from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sa.html\r\nFryer J. (2010). An Investigation of the Marginal Cost of Seawater Desalination in California. Retrieved 5 April 2011 from http://r4rd.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Cost_of_Seawater_Desalination__Final_3-18-09.pdf\r\nGhermandi, A., Bixio, D. And Thoeye, C. (2007). The authority of Free Water Constructed Wetlands As prettify Step in Municipal Wastewater Reclamation and Reuse. comprehension of the Total Environment. 380 (1-3) pp. 247-258 .\r\nLone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club (2008). Desalination: Is It Worth the Salt?. Retrieved 5 April 2011 from http://texas.sierraclub.org/ shorten/Desalination.pdf\r\nMcKenzie, C. (2005). Wastewater Reuse Conserves Water and Protects Waterways. On Tap Winter 44 (4) pp46-51.\r\nMiller, G. (2005). Integrated Concepts in Water Reuse: Managing Global Water\r\nNeeds. Desalination 187 (1-3) pp. 65-75.\r\nTsiourtis, N. (2002). Desalination and the Environment. Desalination. 141 (3) pp. 223-236.\r\nUNESCO (2009). The United Nations World Water Development Report, 3: Water in a Changing World. Paris and London: Earthscan.\r\nQadir, M., Bahri, A., Sato, T., and Al-Karadsheh, E. (2009). Wastewater Production, Treatment and Irrigation in the Middle East and North Africa. Biomedical and Life Science 24 (1-2) pp37-51.\r\nSloane, T. (2009). Water Provision: A Comparative Analysis. London: Sage.\r\nTortajada, C. (2006). Water circumspection in Singapore. International Journal of Water Resourc es Development (22) pp. 227-240.\r\nWilliamson, F. (2010). Water Management: traditionalistic and Alternative Approaches. International Resource Management. 15(2) pp. 227-231.\r\nWorld Bank (2011). Saudi Arabia. Retrieved 5 April 2011 from http://data.worldbank.org/country/saudi-arabia\r\nWorld Energy Council (2010). Issues. Retrieved 5 April 2011 from http://worldenergy.org/Issues\r\nWright, G. (2009). The Economic Feasibility of Desalination for Water provision to Arid Regions. Global Water Issues 13 (2) pp202-206.\r\n'