Turning sea water into drinking water -interior of a Reverse Osmosis desalination plant Image byJames Grellier / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) With water demand tipped to exceed supply by 40% by 2050, many countries have been availing themselves of new technology to avert this possibility, particularly when prompted by climate change in the form of more frequent and more severe droughts, drying rivers and higher temperatures. Broadly speaking there are two major ways – not counting conservation, in which water supplies can be scaled up. The first is desalination – that is, taking sea water or brackish water and turning it into fresh water. The second involves making better use of waste water. Desalination - Costly Magic Currently there are 137 countries using desalination in one form or another. Already known to the ancient Greeks, the first modern distillation plants appeared in landlocked Kuwait in 1951 ...
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