Report on Water Desalination Status in the Mediterranean Countries

This report has been published by EMWIS Steering Committee Former President, Dr. Juan Cánovas Cuenca, currently Chief of Natural Resources Department, at the "Instituto Murciano de Investigación y Desarrollo Agrario y Alimentario" (IMIDA) in Murcia (Spain) in September 2012.

The Author tries to give an overview of the current state of water desalination in the Mediterranean Region. It is possible to find in it detailed information about different water desalination processes, qualitative characteristics of desalinated waters, energy requirements, environmental impacts, desalinated water demands, economy of water desalination and future tendencies.

The author has chosen, as a foundation for this study, the countries with territories in the edges or in the vicinity of the Mediterranean Sea, as is the case of Jordan, although not all its desalination activities are being developed in this region. He has considered that extending the field of study will provide a complete reference that allows us to know how the countries are involved in water desalination development. 

Being this report an initial point to achive the purposes of The Mediterranean Water Forum, its improvement would be desirable during the Forum's progress. Thus, an instrument for public opinion could come up, showing the real prospect of the increasing availability of hydric resources, by means of water desalination. A possibility, simultaneous promising and complex, which rational development might be able to turn into an effective instrument to attack the poverty in our region helping to raise the standard of living of its inhabitants.