Reliance on desalination comes with a big environmental cost for the region’s marine environment
As the World Cup approaches, the host Qatar is going to need at least 10,000 litres of water every day for each of its stadium pitches. Based in a region with virtually no access to freshwater, it is going to rely on desalination – the practice of debrining saltwater so it is drinkable.
It seems like an elegant solution – but the problem is that desalination, which is projected to boom by 37% across the Gulf region in the next five years, has huge environmental costs, in terms of the fossils fuels used to carry out the process, and the marine environment. But without it, how can the region possibly quench its thirst?