If poor countries can afford the running and installation costs of such treatment. However, nanotechnology is low cost and successful technology to be used but it has environmental as well as health dangers. However, biotechnology may be experimented with. However, such aquifers are not confined and seawater continuously intrudes into them or infiltrates into them. Therefore, only large scale desalination plants with huge costs and only for drinking water can be a solution. Above mentioned suggestions can only be suitable for saline arid and semi-arid aquifers.

Desalinating seawater is an increasingly attractive option for water-stressed areas. However, large scale desalination plants are very costly and do not seem to be a  very practical solution for poor countries. 

The $1.9 billion Sydney plant will provide water for more than 1.6 million people in the greater Sydney area The new desalination plant in Sydney generate as much as 250 million liters of water each day.

Victoria's desalination plant cost more than 630 million dollars.

The Adelaide Desalination plant cost $1.83 billion 

The Adelaide Desalination plant, formerly known as the Port Stanvac Desalination Plant, is a SWRO (sea water reverse osmosis) desalination plant located in Lonsdale, South Australia which has the capacity to provide the city of Adelaide with up to 50% of its drinking water needs. The plant was completed on time and within the original budget ($1.83 billion). It has an estimated operating cost of $130 million per year ($2.5 million per week). It was officially opened on 26 March 2013.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Desalination_Plant

https://www.watereuse.org/node/854

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/victorias-desalination-plant-cost-taxpayers-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars-despite-delivery-of-no-water-20141106-11hn1y.html

Hi Prof. Golam Kibria; It is really very fascinating way to  go for desalination plant. But for developing countries it is not economically viable.  In coastal areas sea water intrusion can be controlled through regulated ground water pumping from shallow aquifers. Experiences of Salina Valley Project and Red Rock Ranch projects from California may used. Since it will be very costly hence alternate methods have to be researched in near future to battle this burning issue. Thanks

Dear Mohammad, Behrouz and Sarwan,

Many thanks for your input.

Dear Mohammad, Yes if poor countries can afford

Dear Behrouz, thanks for the links. You can see billions of dollars need to be invested for the desalt plants!

Dear Sarwan, Yes it may not be economically viable for developing countries, What’s about erecting seawalls (earthen)  or restoring mangroves to prevent intrusion of salt water?

Desalination plants are highly capital-intensive and certainly may not be a viable option for the poor countries. There is a very need of maintaining the balance between groundwater recharge-discharge in the coastal areas. Many management options are available, which can be used under different set of conditions to manage the seawater intrusion problems. Of course, practicing these management options, including management models, require professional expertise, but at least one can get the answer of this problem.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X14004191.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022169413007713

.

Dear Ajay and Mussie,

Thank you for your inputs and the weblinks, which will help. Yes renewable energy would be a good choice and it is being expanded rapidly in many countries including Australia, and India for example. One point, though poor countries may have less greenhouse gas emissions per capita but climate change is a global problem and we have to work unitedly to solve this problem!

the biological desalination by using algae ponds could be the best solution for these poor countries. our research program since 2008 till now proves the suitability of applying algae for desalination of sea water up to 80,000 ppm and the product after 21 days on three serial basins became between 1200 to 900 ppm.

how ever it just needs sun shine and temperature more than 10 degree centigrada

in 30 cm depth to produce such efficiency.

Dear Mohamed El Hosseiny,

I am interested to know further about biological desalination by using algae. Do you have any reference or weblinks for this work? Did your experiment include Dunaliella salina? Thanks

Desalination is a necessity and  a positive contemporary solution to utilize waters available nearby and ease politically screwed up claims of  rights put by colonial parties on  international waters in neighboring countries. That is one of the very reasons science and technology are studied, to solve natural and socio-economic problems humans face.. 

A point in case: Ethiopian and Egypt. The government of Egypt used to intimidate and at times waged wars against Ethiopia not to use its waters of the river Nile or locally called Abay for its economic and social benefits in constructing dams and other irrigation mechanisms, because of what they argue as  their natural  rights bestowed from colonial Britain on the river without even the consent of Ethiopia - a right  that defies reason and common sense.

But desalination creates a solution to this problem as Egypt has a large coastal sea boundary that can water the whole of Egypt and leave Ethiopia to use its own waters for its economic development. 

It is therefore a good scientific solution to make water more abundant, available  and curtail the shortage of usable water as there is more sea water available in almost every neighborhood.

Dear Dejenie,

A large part of the world’s freshwater resources is contained in river basins that are shared by two or more countries. Nile is shared by 11 countries.  Increasing water scarcity and depletion of natural resources,  as well climate change, may lead to a potential increase in water conflicts between countries that share transboundary water resources. There is a need of an effective transboundary water management  or specific agreements between riparian states to resolve any conflicts if any!

Dear Golam,

Indeed for such a vital natural resource, mutual understanding and bilateral or multilateral agreements are civilized behaviors and should take place to effectively utilize the water by those who live by the river side. The problem is when one declares he/she is the sole beneficiary and it is his/her own natural and historical right to utilize the river, regardless of where the river is coming from and whatever needs the people of the place the river comes from have. Some one can not use a colonial document found in his/her old archive and argue and claim a natural property from another country  to be his or hers alone for all time - that defines reason and nullifies civility. 

Desalination Plant in Australia Powered by Renewable energy

Most of Australia’s desalination plant is powered by renewable energy (RE) or proposed to be run by using RE and total costs is in the range of A$ 387 million to A$ 5.7 billion. See below   

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_Desalination_Plant

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelaide_Desalination_Plant

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Coast_Desalination_Plant

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perth_Seawater_Desalination_Plant

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Desalination_Plant

The Future of Desalination

With further breakthroughs in research and development, the long-term target set by Singapore is to reduce desalination energy consumption to 0.8kWh/m3. One of the technologies which PUB is looking into to achieve that target is the use of Biomimetic membranes/Biomimicry in desalination plants. The principle of such applications is adopted from plant and animal life which have been extracting sea water for their survival evolved over millions of years, using negligible amounts of energy.

If science can find a way of mimicking these biological processes, innovative engineering solutions can potentially be derived for seawater desalination. Seawater desalination can then be transformed beyond our wildest imagination. There can be potentially lower costs of desalinating water, strengthening the viability of desalinated water as an affordable water source.

http://www.waterworld.com/articles/wwi/print/volume-27/issue-2/international-show-review/biomimicry-desalination.html

It is a problem because desalination of sea water is very expensive treatment. It is not solution for poor countries and pооr people. If somebody help to build plant people will not be able pay water for drink. Try to think about water from deep earth.

The main problem for while in relatively low lands is generally the salt intrusion in the underground aquifers due to the extraction of excessive water flows for different uses and the natural incapacity for the required fresh water recharge. The water quality decreases considerably and can turn it improper for human consumption or livestock. Desalination is a possibility, even for salinities much lower than those normally found in the sea water (it is of around 35g/l in the Atlantic sea, for example), and with subsequent reduction of the production costs. Brine is produced (by salt transference) and of course it was better the inexistence of saline intrusion. According to VIKIPEDIA, “the current sea level rise is about 3 mm/year worldwide”, and it raised 0,195m between 1870 and 2004 (1.46 mm/year). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Current_sea_level_rise. Is not possible the human life without fresh water in any place of the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Current_sea_level_rise

Hi all, @Golam, Dejenie and others mentioning the problems of water conflicts between borderlands of [=transboundary] water resources I would like to add the following (concerning changing whole mega-areal natural resources / ecosystems): I learned from a recent Austrian ‘Universum’ movie in TV about the yearly OKAVANGO delta inundations (ending up 'dead end' in the Kalahari desert): rivalry and drafting/removal of too much water in the headwater / middle reaches could lead to an ecologic disaster within the next decade, IF border states insist selfishly “on their right” to withdraw water from the headwater/middle reaches in an uncontrolled way. This “natural spectacle”….one of the in this world…

see e.g. http://www.africatravelresource.com/africa/botswana/okavango/guide/updates/,  or

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eco.1293/abstract  : Inundation frequency and viability of microcrustacean propagules in soils of temporary aquatic habitats of lower Okavango Delta, Botswana (by Siziba et al, in Ecohydrology, Volume 6, Issue 5, pages 722–730, October 2013) (and if "googleing" many more specific literature of "hidden habitats" during the and phases....

 For the other part of the thread I can’t say much despite knowing a little bit about biological as well as technical desalination techniques… fortunately I am living in a country where “water” (most of it in highest, drinkable, quality) steadily flows across alpine rocks and lime stone mountains to disembogue at their bottom/base line as freshwater wellspring.

 And last but not least, I would like to cordially welcome again in this thread our “downvoter” (cf. Kamal's reply....what is wrong with this reply??)....known from other threads very well being active AND ACT very specifically against some persons….(;;-().

Dear Wolfgang,

RE: Transboundary water resources

The transboundary agreements/treaty between water sharing nations may specify that an upstream riparian state should deliver a minimum flow to a downstream riparian state in order to maintain river health and key ecological functions. In addition, regular communication and cooperation should be taken place between transboundary river nations.  Climate change assessments including potential impacts of climate change on water resources (quantity and quality) should be taken into consideration to inform transboundary management

Cooley, H.,  J. Christian-Smith, P. H. Gleick, L. Allen and M. Cohen 2009. Understanding and reducing the risks of climate change for transboundary waters. Pacific Institute, California and UNEP. ISBN: 1-893790-22-3

HI, desalination plant is definitely a solution for sea-level rise affected   countries but for poor countries probably not. I do agree@Behrouz Ahmadi-Nedushan regarding the high costs of Victoria and Adelaide desalinization plants which are impossible for poor and developing countries. We have to have look for other cheaper technologies for them. Regards

Desalination plants are of quite different nature. For poor countries and as a matter of fact for rich countries also, desalination plants using renewable energy can be a solution. It all depends on the availability and the kind of renewable energy sources for each country.  Both of these factors affect the efficiency of the plants and the cost.

Although membrane costs have decreased in the last decade, are still high; a module can cost hundreds of dollars. Low cost membranes, as non-woven membranes are not an option in this case because its pore size is too large to retain ions. In addition, it must be consider that the energy costs associated with the operation of the membranes are high, so an alternative source of energy should be applied. For these reasons, the use of membranes for desalination is not a viable option for poor countries

In large scale above 10,000 m3/day, is possible to generate potable water from seawater trough RO. If there is energy.

In general you will need about 3.4 Kw-hr/m3 of specific energy (which is very low)

and depending on energy cost ( 0.1  Us/ kw-hr), the water cost will be 1 Us/m3

plus  distribution costs.

In case of very small communities (100 people), still can be use mist collectors and

and solar distillation (if solar radiation is high 500-1000 w/m2)  

Desalination is more energy intensive than most other water supply options

Removing the salt from seawater is an energy intensive process and consumes more energy per gallon than most other water supply and treatment options. Groundwater and surface water are among the least energy-intensive and the energy requirements for recycled water vary, depending on the level of treatment required to meet the water quality of a desired end use

• irrigation and other non-potable uses the energy intensity is 1,000 – 1,800 kWh per million gallons or 0.26 – 0.48 kWh/m3
• to recharge aquifers that may undergo membrane treatment, with an energy requirement of 3,300 – 8,300 kWh per million gallons or 0.87 – 2.2 kWh/m3
• desalinations plants use about 15,000 kWh per million gallons of water produced (kWh/MG) (range 12,000- 18,000 kWh/MG) or 4.0 kWh per cubic meter (kWh/m3)

Reference

Cooley, H.  and M. Heberger 2013. Key Issues for Seawater Desalination in California Energy and Greenhouse Gas. Emissions. Pacific Institute, Oakland, California 94612.  ISBN: 1-893790-49-5. www.pacinst.org/reports/desalination_2013/energy;  http://pacinst.org/publication/desal-marine-impacts/

I can talk about the first and largest desalination plant in the world in the period 2005-2010, built in Israel at Ashkelon, for which I performed the technical specs and tender on the marine parts and the supervision on the design and built works. The consortium which did it, commtted to a national water authority tender to produce desalinated sea water of 100 million cubic meters per year, at a cost of 0.5US$/cubic meter. I don't know what is the potable water cost per cubic meter in other countries, but in Israel it was definitely a relatively low cost. Now we have a few additional desalination plants, with even larger desalinated water volumes (150 million/annum). I believe that desalination may be a good and not expensive solution even for poor countries, especially those which may get affected by sea level rise with salting of their coastal aquifers. Nevertheless, such places should perhaps chack also the feasibility of underwater seepage of potable of low salinity content water from their aquifers, by conducting surveys of potential seepage underwater off their coasts, and if found, trapping and using the water directly or via RO desalination. In the Mediterranean there are a number of places where large amounts of seeping water were found. Finally, desalination of gray waters from sewage may also be a solution in certain cases.  

Solar desalination is emerging technology and it can be used as a sustainable solution for some areas. In case of availability, the combination of one of desalination methods and sustainable or renewable energy can assist in providing a fresh water at low cost. Also, it is environment friendly and can reduce the footprint of the huge desalination plants 

Yes, solar desalination saves a lot of energy requirement and bring the overall operational cost of a desalination plant.

I suggest desalination plant go with the seawater greenhouse project together. Seawater greenhouse is suitable for the areas lack of water (such as desert) but have high exposure to sunlight. The Seawater Greenhouse uses solar power/ wind power which can solve the desalination plant's high energy consumption requirement. Farming can provide the jobs for the local people, hence a new man-made community can be formed.

It can help poor country for both the water and food needs. Developed country company can corporate with the local government to develop the project. 

http://www.seawatergreenhouse.com/index.html

http://thefabweb.com/30921/sahara-forest-project/

http://www.seawatergreenhouse.com/regions.html

Of course desalination plant can be part of solution for the areas where there is a stress of water (availability). Even here in Tanzania we thinking of use sea water for domestic purposes.

However, some point should be considered such as  the cost of installation,  cost per of water per litre of water after installation. All in all the cost  should be cheap enough so as everyone can afford cost (Water is Life). Also consider the production brine water after desalination process. Where  discharge  the brine water??. This is very important to avoid ground water pollution due to salt.

Chanzi, hamidar

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/sep/27/climate-change-poor-countries-ipcc

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-globalwarming-searise/sea-level-rise-could-hit-poor-countries-hard-study-idUSN1340440520070213

Article The Impact of Sea Level Rise on Developing Countries: A Comp...

Desalination plant is not an option for the poor countries because it is very expensive treatment.

Online Environmental Education to Help Developing Countries

https://www.researchgate.net/project/Online-Environmental-Education-to-Help-Developing-Countries

Well,

Most of the sectors that will be affected by sea level rise are the estuaries of the rivers and the delta areas, where the concentration of the total soluble matter is low, the procedures and costs of desalinating the water are low, and the rise in the sea level will cost the poor countries and the rich both losses because it will replace the processing designs

Regards

Interesting!