Water desalination is one of the fastest-growing industries in the market, nearing $13 billion by the end of the year and a $25 billion projection by 2032. While the common thinking behind this is to help impoverished communities and countries to have safe cleaning water, what isn’t considered is that there is less potable clean water in the world due to population booms and polluted waters all over the world.
Environmental groups as well as governments around the world are starting to believe that the need for water desalination may get to the point where everyone will have to use this equipment in order to have clean drinking water.
What is water desalination?
There is a common understanding that water desalination is making dirty water clean. This is true, but specifically, it is the process of taking a source of water and separating the salts and minerals from it and creating a freshwater source that can be used for any other purpose.
Water desalination isn’t only used in humanitarian services either. Oftentimes, equipment is used in the mining, agriculture and oil and gas industries as well as for personal use and drinking.
Where is water desalination happening?
According to recent FMI reports, the Middle East and Africa regions are expected to continue to dominate the market. The Middle East primarily will use the equipment to help grow the Saudi Arabia coastal areas that are expanding in Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, and Saudi Arabia.
Asia is also rapidly expanding with economies growing primarily in China and India. Many of these countries lack water cleaning laws which means that the water quality increasingly gets worse while populations boom with cities increasing their size in some cases by 10% or more over the last decade. In these scenarios, clean water is becoming very valuable and water desalination equipment is how that is often achieved.
Other use cases
Many people only think of drinking water when they hear about water desalination, but that simply isn’t the truth. So many industries require clean and particularly salt-free water when working. One example is the gas and oil industry.
A few years ago, MECO, a water desalination company, brought equipment into Western Africa to help filter ocean water using a reverse osmosis system. The water was used for quite a few purposes, however, one of the main purposes was to help maintain and keep equipment functioning at a safe, high level with clean water as opposed to the rough salt water in the area.
Another very common use is in farming. Without water desalination systems, many areas would be unable to support crops because of either the saltiness of the water or the number of chemicals and pollutants. This has opened up thousands of acres that are now able to provide local food and help to lower costs and keep produce fresh.
Other injuries include concrete, car washes, aquariums, and even ice rinks, all for the very specific purpose of needing a certain water quality to have peak performance.
The future of water desalination
Despite many countries starting to roll out more water regulations, the industry is likely to continue to rapidly grow. More homes are being built that require clean water to be chemically balanced in concrete. Farmland continues to be pushed around, forcing crops to be grown in obsolete areas that may not have a great water source. People of course continue to increase in population, particularly in big cities, meaning more water will be needed for drinking and other daily needs.
The bottom line is, the need for clean water is only increasing, and water desalination systems and the industry as a whole will continue to be in high demand.
