The True Cost of Desalination

— Time and again when the media trumpet the arrival or development of new desalination projects the stories gloss over the actual cost of the water that is being produced. This is not necessarily bad reporting but because desalination costs are notoriously complicated to assess. For years - decades even - in the late 20th century the costs of the major multi-stage flash distillation (MSF) plants of the Persian Gulf, the yardstick by which the industry was judged, were put between $1-$2 USD per cubic meter. But few worried about what the precise cost might be, so long as the projects were run by the state and the water produced was sold to domestic customers at heavily subsidized rates...