Drought Forces Spain to Source Drinking Water From the Sea

Mediterranean region is becoming warmer and drier more quickly than most places, prompting a costly revamp of infrastructure

By Margherita Stancati of The WSJ. 

I used to use the book "The Economics of Public Issues" as supplemental text when I taught. One chapter was called "Are We Running Out of Water?" One thing they point out about water is that 

"water is no different than any other scarce good. If we want more of it, we must sacrifice more of other things to achieve that goal."

This article seems to be an example of that. Excerpts:

"Fill a glass with tap water in Barcelona these days and one-fifth of it will be processed seawater. Another fifth will be treated wastewater derived from toilets, showers and other urban uses.

This mix is emerging as the drinking water of the future in Mediterranean countries. The region is becoming warmer and drier more quickly than most places on Earth, forcing people and governments to act faster here than elsewhere to find new freshwater supplies."

"For many years after Barcelona’s Llobregat desalination plant opened in 2009, it was little used, contributing less than 5% of the city’s drinking water, which is mostly supplied by reservoirs and groundwater. Since last summer, the plant has worked at full throttle, producing over 500 gallons of fresh water per second."

"In countries around the Mediterranean Sea, recurrent droughts and dwindling flows of water from mountains into rivers are leading to a re-engineering of the water infrastructure. Farmers are digging more and deeper wells, and often switching to crops that need less water. Governments from Spain to Israel to Algeria are investing massively in desalination plants and looking for supplies of fresh water farther afield.

In the Italian region of Puglia, local authorities want to build a €1 billion, 100-kilometer underwater pipeline—not to carry oil or natural gas but drinking water."

"Puglia has no major rivers or snow-capped mountains. For now, the region is making the most of the little water it has. Local authorities are spending some €1.7 billion, equivalent to $1.9 billion, to repair and replace leaky water pipes, through which some 48% of drinking water there is lost."

"There are downsides to desalination. Turning seawater into drinking water is an energy-intensive process, which makes desalination both costly and bad for the environment. The super-salty brine that is left over is harmful to the ocean’s ecosystem.

Spain is betting heavily on the technology."