Evaluating environmental and socio-economic requirements for improving desalination development

The continuous increase in global freshwater demand highlights desalination technology as one of the most feasible options for addressing global water scarcity. This increase has occurred more rapidly in certain countries owing to certain factors that can influence the development of desalination projects. A survey of 34 international desalination experts was carried out to evaluate the main requirements and most limiting factors for the development of desalination projects in different countries based on a semi-quantitative analysis. The obtained results showed high heterogeneity of environmental and socio-economic requirements across different countries. The main barriers identified for desalination development were the cost of produced water, low financial support, and stringent environmental requirements. We observed that social acceptance of desalination projects is normally high and does not represent a limiting factor for their development. However, low levels of environmental requirements and/or public involvement have been identified as issues and these should be improved in some countries. The knowledge obtained in this research may be used to inform scientific advice and advance toward the sustainable development of desalination projects.