— 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...
The True Cost of Desalination
5 Feb 2007 by OOSKAnews Correspondent
LONDON
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