Renewable Energy Desalination : An Emerging Solution to Close the Water Gap in the Middle East and North Africa

World Bank

Washington, DC:World Bank

关键词: AMBIENT AIR;    AMBIENT AIR POLLUTION;    APPROACH;    AVAILABILITY;    BAGASSE;   

DOI  :  10.1596/978-0-8213-8838-9
RP-ID  :  73070

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA)region is one of the most water-stressed parts of the world.In just over 25 years, between 1975 and 2001. Looking to thefuture, MENA's freshwater outlook is expected to worsenbecause of continued population growth and projected climatechange impacts. The region's population is on the wayto doubling to 700 million by 2050. Projections of climatechange and variability impacts on the region's wateravailability are highly uncertain, but they are expected tobe largely negative. To offer just one more example,rainfall and freshwater availability could decrease by up to40 percent for some MENA countries by the end of thiscentury. The urgent challenge is how to adapt to the futureas illustrated by these numbers and how to turn theregion's economy onto a sustainable path. This volumesuggests new ways of thinking about the complex changes andplanning needed to achieve this. New thinking will meanmaking better use of desert land, sun, and salt water theabundant riches of the region which can be harnessed tounderpin sustainable growth. More mundane, but just asimportant, new thinking will also mean planning fordramatically better management of the water alreadyavailable. Right now, water is very poorly managed in MENA.Inefficiencies are notorious in agriculture, whereirrigation consumes up to 81 percent of extracted water.Similarly, municipal and industrial water supply systemshave abnormally high losses, and most utilities arefinancially unsustainable. In addition, many MENA countriesoverexploit their fossil aquifers to meet growing waterdemand. None of this is sustainable while water resourcesdecline. This volume hopes to add to the ongoing thinkingand planning by presenting methodologies to address thewater demand gap. It assesses the viability of desalinationpowered by renewable energy from economic, social,technical, and environmental viewpoints, and it reviewsinitiatives attempting to make renewable energy desalinationa competitively viable option. The authors also highlightthe change required in terms of policy, financing, andregional cooperation to make this alternative method ofdesalination a success. And as with any leading edgetechnology, the conversation here is of course about scale,cost, environmental impact, and where countries share waterbodies plain good neighborly behavior.