3 ms·
Not staggeringly expensive, about 38 cents per day per person, apparently: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desalination#Costs https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/D
by HPsquared 3y ago
Not staggeringly expensive, about 38 cents per day per person, apparently:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desalination#Costs https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desalination#Costs
Although that doesn't include irrigation..
EDIT: can even be economical for irrigation in some circumstances: https://www.fluencecorp.com/desalination-and-agriculture-lessons-from-spain/ https://www.fluencecorp.com/desalination-and-agriculture-les...
- XorNot 3y agoKind of leaving out the main point there. People don't use a lot of water. Industry and Farming do. We depend on both of those for...pretty much our entire society.
- HPsquared 3y agoWater-intensive industrial processes can move to where the water is. Farming is more of a challenge but some crops need more water than others; there's a lot of scope for substitution.
- mrguyorama 3y agoYeah maybe someday we can stop growing all our produce in the damn desert just because the weather was slightly more profitable.
- XorNot 3y agoBecause all of that's going to be cheap right? In a nation which loses its mind even gas prices go up 20c?
- bombcar 3y agoPeople use water directly and indirectly. And water is "used" and "used" - it's not as simple as measuring a pipe, you need to know where it goes.
- PeterisP 3y agoSomething like 600 million people live below the poverty line, which with current inflation is at $2.15 per day; so for them a 38 cent per day rate means diverting almost 20% of their income just on water. For comparison, that's a much larger share than what USA residents spend on food (~13% of their income).
- HPsquared 3y agoThe figures assume a US citizen level of water consumption, someone on $2 a day would use much less than this.