Can Salt Water Be Converted Into Drinking Water?

Out of all the natural resources on Earth, water is the scarcest. Water is not only scarce but also precious. Without water, life is impossible on Earth. It is needed on a daily basis to survive on our planet for all living beings. Do you know that 98% of water is oceanic salt water, 1.5% remains locked up in icecaps and glaciers and the remaining 0.5% is the only water available for drinking and other uses. What if we convert those salty water into drinking water? Is it really possible? Let us find out.

Actually, it is possible. The process is popularly known as desalination. We can do and people are doing it since ancient times of the Greeks. But doing it on a large scale has been found very expensive in comparison to the local sources of fresh water. With the continuous advancement in technology, the research is on to drive down the costs so that maximum people can make use of it keeping in mind the growing scarcity of fresh water. 

Let us get to know what exactly is desalination of water and how is it done? It is a process of removing salt from saltwater and it can be done in different ways. However, the most common ones include distillation and reverse osmosis method. The major countries following this method include Japan, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates. Desalination provides 70% of drinking water in Saudi Arabia. While in the United States, the largest users through of water through this process include Virginia, Florida, Texas, and California. Since decades, cruises ships, submarines, and ships have been using this water. Desalination is going to be set up in India soon and according to reports, the state of Tamil Nadu is all set to introduce India’s first offshore desalination unit. Let's hope for the best and we really look forward to this. 

In fact, the other regions of India having sea beaches should also look into it seriously as the water is not free anymore and is becoming expensive day by day. There are many rural areas in India who suffer acute water shortages throughout the year and there are many drought-affected areas too that needs a consistent water supply for agricultural and irrigation purposes. Penguin Tank strongly recommends doing so to meet an uninterrupted supply of water demand, just like, their plastic water storage tank does.