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Sounds like it would be cheaper to build desalination plants on the coast, and pipe the water in. Iran certainly has the technology and brainpower to do that.
by ChrisMarshallNY 11mo ago
Sounds like it would be cheaper to build desalination plants on the coast, and pipe the water in. Iran certainly has the technology and brainpower to do that.
- jack_riminton 11mo agoI suggest you read the article it talks about the viability of that very point
- ChrisMarshallNY 11mo ago> I suggest you read the article I wasn't talking about what they were discussing (desalination for farming). I was talking about moving an entire city, as opposed to getting enough water to deal with just that city. I suggest you read this: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html#comments https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html#comments
- nayroclade 11mo agoActually it says the desalinated water is too expensive even for farming, it’s only used for heavy industries, so it’s certainly not a solution for the domestic supply of 9 million people. And don’t confuse moving the capital city with actually relocating Tehran. Tehran’s not going anywhere. What they’re proposing is building a new capital city, but it’ll be the rich and the political and religious elite who move there. The millions of poor and powerless living in Tehran will get left behind. Some will be able to migrate south, but many won’t.
- ChrisMarshallNY 11mo agoGood answer. Makes sense. I’m convinced my conjecture was wrong. No issue. But the number 100 billion was mentioned as the cost of moving the capital.
- yoavm 11mo agoWhat's unique about Iran that makes it not feasible? Israel makes more than half of its drinking water from desalination.
- tguvot 11mo agoactually 90% of potable water in israel comes from desalination. in addition, a bunch of desalinated water supplied to jordan and PA. also 90%+ of waste water is recycled and used for irrigation
- tguvot 11mo agofor farming you recycle waste water
- Europas 11mo agoNo it has not and due to sanctions of USA, they struggle getting the equipement they need.
- mhb 11mo agoAnd what are the sanctions due to?
- Europas 11mo ago[dead]
- amanaplanacanal 11mo agoMostly their ongoing cold war with Israel, I think.
- mhb 11mo agoHow is it a "cold" war when using proxies to attach as well as directly shooting rockets at Israel?
- linhns 11mo agoDeceitfully pursuing nuclear weapons?
- user205738 11mo agoThree years before Iran builds a nuclear weapons, since 1992
- mhb 11mo ago60% enriched uranium.
- nerdsniper 11mo agoThey share the same gas field with Qatar, who does all their desalination with all the excess gas production they can’t sell. Qatar has no surface freshwater or groundwater. So all of their water is desalinated. It’s often still quite salty to the taste though - the last few ppms would be an exorbitant cost to remove. However, Qatar has 3 million people. Iran has 92 million people - 9 million in Tehran alone. So their half of that gas field in the Gulf contributes far less energy per capita. And even if the energy is free (unlimited natural gas, fusion, magic, whatever) desalination is still fairly expensive. I think only about 50% of the cost is energy, the other half is CapEx, operations, and replacing the membranes as they get used up.
- ChrisMarshallNY 11mo agoI have read about experimental desalination techniques that do a better job, and use less energy, but I haven't heard much about that, lately. I'd think that this kind of research would be a priority. It won't be long, before we start having water wars (like olden times, but with nastier weapons).
- pbmonster 11mo agoThe low hanging fruit have been long picked. Reverse osmosis is within 50% of the thermodynamic limit. If you have gigawatts of low grade waste heat (Iran does, in theory), you can run multistage flash distillers of the waste heat, and those have more than an order of magnitude separation to the thermodynamic limit (they also have lower CAPEX, lower maintenance and lower water pre-treatment requirements than reverse osmosis).
- dsalzman 11mo agoIn world first, Israel begins pumping desalinated water into depleted Sea of Galilee https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-world-first-israel-begins-pumping-desalinated-water-into-depleted-sea-of-galilee/ https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-world-first-israel-begins-p...
- nikanj 11mo agoQatar and exorbitant cost are an iconic duo, surprised they haven't gone through the trouble considering the general trend of glamor and excess
- TiredOfLife 11mo agoToo busy building rockets and drones