Water. desalination + reuse

COMMENT G E N E S Y S I N T E R N A T I O N A L Harnessing the power of microbubbles Genesys - Developing Technology to Improve your Operation YEARS YEARS Our revolutionary approach to RO membrane cleaning was successfully launched at the IDA conference in Tianjin, for more information please contact marmstrong@genesysro.com Genesys International | Tel: +44 (0)1606 837 605 | www.genesysro.com 4758 Genairclean_DW&R.indd 1 14/11/2013 16:52 PREDICTABLE SQUEALS have begun to emerge from residents' groups in California who are being asked to cut back on water use due to the state's ongoing drought. One of these was in prosperous Marin county, where, a couple of years back, the residents forced the local water agency to shelve its plan for a desalination plant in San Francisco Bay. Presumably, when they voted for conservation rather than desalination, they had a rather vague idea of what "conservation" actually means. We will shortly hear similar from Santa Cruz residents, whose councillors last year backed off a seawater plant under voter pressure. Meanwhile, politicians in the east of Australia, with mole-like vision, continue to berate the previous state administrations who built the large seawater desalination plants that will ensure the large Australian cities will have much less of a problem with future droughts. How quickly political will can change! But drought (along with flooding) is something many regions of the world are going to have to learn to cope with, and desalination, as well as being essential for the desert cities of the Gulf region or the mines in the Atacama desert, will be on the agenda of many politicians in less harsh terrain before they can see it coming. Which is why the action of the US state of Texas, after a prolonged period without much rain, is to be welcomed. Not only is the state taking practical steps by re-examining brackish water aquifers and scoping large seawater desalination plants, it is also initiating political action. A Joint Interim Committee to Study Water Desalination has been created by the state legislature, including members of both houses. Lt Governor David Dewhurst has appointed five state senators to the committee and given them four initial tasks, though he anticipates adding to these jobs fairly soon. Not to be left out, the California Department of Water Resources appointed a drought manager even before the governor actually declared the emergency. At the same time, three senators called on President Obama to form a federal drought task force and appoint a federal drought coordinator. Thus action to address drought is being taken in the best way possible – on a regional level where some coordinated thinking will be possible and the needs of the state as a whole will outweigh the objections of particular self-interested residents. This can only be good for desalination and reuse, which, as we know, come into their own when other sources of potable water dry up. Robin Wiseman Back on the political agenda editor'scorner

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