“Israel is now pumping desalinated seawater into the drought-stressed Sea of Galilee—apparently the first time in history that desalination has been used to refill a natural lake,” reports The Doomslayer.
The Times of Israel explains:
The Water Authority has started channeling desalinated water to the Sea of Galilee, marking the first ever attempt anywhere in the world to top up a freshwater lake with processed seawater.
The groundbreaking project, years in the making and a sign of both Israel’s success in converting previously unusable water into a vital resource and the rapidly dropping water levels in the country’s largest freshwater reservoir, was quietly inaugurated on October 23.
The desalinated water enters the Sea of Galilee via the the seasonal Tsalmon Stream, entering at the Ein Ravid spring, some four kilometers (2.5 miles) northwest of what is Israel’s emergency drinking source.
Firas Talhami, who is in charge of the rehabilitation of water sources in northern Israel for the Water Authority, told The Times of Israel that he expected the project to raise the lake’s level by around 0.5 centimeters (0.2 inches) per month.
The move has also reactivated the previously dried-out spring, allowing visitors to once again paddle down the Tsalmon, which now flows with desalinated water.
Many arid or dense countries, such as Malta, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates, now rely on desalinization to provide water. A couple years ago, researchers discovered an additional way to get fresh water from the sea, due to the creation of floating desalination machines that use “no electricity” and are “100% mechanically driven”:
Oneka’s floating desalination machines – buoys anchored to the seabed – use a membrane system that is solely powered by the movement of the waves. The buoys absorb energy from passing waves, and covert it into mechanical pumping forces that draw in seawater and push around a quarter of it through the desalination system.
The fresh, drinking water is then pumped to land through pipelines, again only using the power provided by the waves.
In some places, drinking water could come from thin air:
Cody Friesen, an associate professor of materials science at Arizona State University, has developed a solar-powered hydropanel that can absorb water vapor at high volumes when exposed to sunlight. It is a modern-day twist on an approach been used for centuries to pull water from the atmosphere, such as using trees or nets to “catch” fog in Peru, a practice that dates back to the 1500s and is still being used today….Friesen founded his own company Zero Mass Water in 2014 following his research on solar-powered hydropanels. Today the company is called Source Global, operates in more than 50 countries and has a private valuation of more than $1 billion.
The panels work by using sunlight to power fans that pull air into the device, which contains a desiccant material which absorbs and traps moisture. The water molecules accumulate and are emitted as water vapor as the solar energy raises the temperature of the panel to create a high-humidity gas. This then condenses into a liquid before minerals are added to make it drinkable.
“That’s how we’re able to create water in most places in the world, even when it’s very dry,” says Friesen. “We’re headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, which is sub-5% relative humidity in the summer and we’re still making water. It’s a uniquely efficient and low-cost approach that enables us to go places where nobody else can go.”
The air, even in relatively dry climates, can hold a surprising amount of water. The Earth’s atmosphere as a whole contains about six times as much water as the planet’s rivers.
Friesen’s goal is to expand access to water for people with few options, such as rural communities that don’t have electricity, and regions afflicted by natural disasters. Among Source’s customers is a school in Africa where students once had to trek for hours a day to find fresh water. A panel costs about $2,000 and lasts at least 15 years. But advances in artificial intelligence have boosted yields, able to monitor changing conditions, humidity, temperatures, and sunlight to extract the maximum amount of water, says Adam Sharkawy of Material Impact, an investor in Source Global. “These panels are constructed to create four to five liters of drink per panel per day. But with AI and machine learning algorithms, these numbers can go much higher, maybe aspiring towards seven, eight, nine. That makes it even more effective and more cost efficient.”
Water’s perceived scarcity has led to stupid federal regulations in the U.S., where water is plentiful in most areas. Dishwashers and washing machines take much longer to run than they used to, and get clothes and dishes less clean, due to federal regulations that make washing machines use ridiculously little water, too little water to get many clothes and some dishes clean. As a result, some people run their washing machine or dishwasher multiple times rather than just once, increasing energy use. A a recent study in England suggests that people compensate for showerheads that emit less water by taking longer showers, rather than reducing overall water use. The first Trump administration attempted to roll back these regulations to the extent that they were counterproductive and actually increased energy use. But the Biden administration undid the Trump administration’s steps toward fixing this situation. Recently, the second Trump administration rescinded the Biden administration’s counterproductive regulations, which will probably lead to a lawsuit against the Trump administration by groups that seek to restrict water use.
