Desalination for cost-effective water production
In the last four decades there has been a steady increase in the use of desalination for low salinity, high quality water production from high salinity or low quality source water. This increase has been due to improvements in the desalination technologies used, a steady decrease over time in the cost of producing desalinated water compared to treating fresh water from diminishing quality surface or ground water sources, and stricter government regulations for wastewater discharges, making wastewater reclamation an increasingly viable alternative to treating fresh water.