National Desalination Clearinghouse
What's going on
Using water management tools
Research
Library
Schoolhouse
Links
Contact us

Note: These pages are still under construction. Please let us know what you think of our draft site.

The Clearinghouse provides information on current desalination research and results, water management tools, and research events and opportunities. Desalination research is critical because:

We cannot live without fresh, clean water. The world’s supply of fresh water is limited and increasingly overburdened and degraded. The United Nations estimates that 5 to 10 million people die each year from lack of water or from diseases related to polluted water. The U.S. is not exempt from shortages--municipal needs compete with industrial, agricultural, environmental, rural, and other uses. Public health, economic, infrastructure, and environmental problems will multiply as the gap between water supply and demand grows. Meeting our water needs as demands grow becomes increasingly urgent and more difficult.

Desalination purifies water from unconventional sources (e.g., seawater, inland impaired and brackish water, and wastewater). By purifying these currently unused water sources, desalination can:

• Improve water quality. Desalination purifies water qualities beyond the U.S. Environment Protection Agency’s safe drinking water quality regulations, thus ensuring public health and protecting our environment.
• Provide water where people live. Over 70 percent of the U.S. population currently lives near an ocean or other impure source water that could be desalinated and used. As the population continues to move to coastal areas, ocean desalination becomes an increasingly useful option to provide water.
• Help manage water. Desalination has tremendous potential as a water management tool to meet demands and provide a reliable “drought proof” water supply by tapping previously unused water sources and advancing wastewater reuse and recycling.