Omega produces improved ecosystem conditions, renewable biofuels, and clean water through the use of waste products and non-invasive algae

1AC Water Wars Middle East Module

Specifically, there’s water scarcity in the Middle East

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), 2009, Fighting water scarcity in the Arab countries, http://www.ifad.org/operations/projects/regions/pn/factsheets/WWF_factsheet.pdf. Accessed 7/16/14. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) (is a specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to eradicating rural poverty in developing countries.
The Arab countries account for more than 5 per cent of the world’s population, but less than 1 per cent of global water resources. And as a consequence of the phenomena associated with climate change, the region is facing an even greater water shortage. For 30 years now, IFAD and its partners in the region have worked to develop effective, replicable solutions to help poor rural communities manage their scarce water resources. More than half of IFAD’s programmes and projects in the region include a focus on water. IFAD’s integrated approach supports water infrastructure development, rational use of available surface water and groundwater resources, whether fresh, brackish or saline, and promotes recycling grey water in marginal areas. Improved small-scale irrigation technologies, effective rain harvesting techniques, appropriate conservation infrastructure and improved varieties of drought-resistant seeds also help poor rural people cope with increasing water scarcity. Current situation Water supplies in the Arab countries are under severe stress. Demographic growth (2.6 per cent), economic growth, urbanization, industrialization and the expansion of irrigated agricultural lands have all contributed to a dramatic and unsustainable increase in water consumption over the past few decades. Frequent droughts, in conjunction with an overuse of groundwater and major aquifers, have greatly reduced the availability of both renewable and non-renewable water resources.2 Most of the Arab countries are consequently heading towards a severe water scarcity. A close look at the current status of the water supply shows that it is continuing to decline. By 2025, the per capita water supply will be approximately 500 m3 /cap/yr, or 15 per cent of what it used to be in 1960, when it stood at 3,300 m3 /cap/yr.

Water scarcity causes Middle East conflict

COMMANDER STEVEN J. BOWSER

30 MAR 2010 THE JORDAN RIVER: SOURCE OF LIFE AND SOURCE OF CONFLICT.

Strategy Resource Project. USAWC CLASS OF 2010 http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a519857.pdf. Accessed 7/16/14
Few regions of the world offer a more varied physical geography or a richer mix of ethnicities, religions, languages, societies, cultures and politics than the Middle East. At the same time, no segment of the globe presents its diverse aspects in such a mixture of conflicts and complexities. From this, one issue emerges as the most conspicuous, cross-cutting and problematic - fresh water. Its scarcity and rapid diminution happen to occur in some of the driest parts of an area where there are also some of the fiercest national animosities. Water in the Middle East is thus a conflictladen determinant of both the domestic and external policies of the region's principal actors. In an already over-heated atmosphere of political hostility, insufficient water to satisfy human, developmental and security needs among all nations of the Middle East heightens the ambient tensions.10 Since at least the mid-1980s through present day, numerous world leaders and many authors (e.g. Bulloch, Darwish and Starr)11 and other subject matter experts, as well as most lay persons with whom this author discussed the topic during the writing of this essay, have opined or currently hold the opinion that “water wars” in this region of the world are imminent. In the particularly dry summer of 1990, King Hussein of Jordan stated that the only reason which might bring Jordan to war again was water.12 Then later in the mid-1990s, former United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali repeatedly said that the next war in the Middle East would be about water not politics.13 To some, such statements are "exaggerated and misleading".14 The region contains three major river systems – the Tigris-Euphrates, the Nile and the Jordan. Each has unique characteristics and attributes. One aspect of the Jordan River system that makes it unique among those three is the ongoing Arab-Israeli tension in that region. The five political entities (Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Occupied Palestinian Territories of West Bank and Gaza Strip) that comprise the Jordan River basin depend, to varying degrees, on the use of its surface and ground waters to Nonetheless, they do draw attention to an important problem. Though Boutros-Ghali's prediction did not come to pass, a future war over water is not out of the question. Conflicts are still generally determined by deep political differences and the danger of another war in the Middle East has not yet been averted despite the best efforts of many well-intentioned people. Yet, this region clearly remains one of the tensest areas of the world where hydrological matters undeniably infuse an additional dimension to that conflict.

Middle East conflict goes nuclear

Russell 2009 James A., senior lecturer in the Department of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School, “Strategic Stability Reconsidered: Prospects for Escalation and Nuclear War in the Middle East,” Institut Français des Relations Internationales, Spring, http://www.analyst-network.com/articles/141/StrategicStabilityReconsideredProspectsforEscalationandNuclearWarintheMiddleEast.pdf

Strategic stability in the region is thus undermined by various factors: (1) asymmetric interests in the bargaining framework that can introduce unpredictable behavior from actors; (2) the presence of non-state actors that introduce unpredictability into relationships between the antagonists; (3) incompatible assumptions about the structure of the deterrent relationship that makes the bargaining framework strategically unstable; (4) perceptions by Israel and the United States that its window of opportunity for military action is closing, which could prompt a preventive attack; (5) the prospect that Iran’s response to pre-emptive attacks could involve unconventional weapons, which could prompt escalation by Israel and/or the United States; (6) the lack of a communications framework to build trust and cooperation among framework participants. These systemic weaknesses in the coercive bargaining framework all suggest that escalation by any the parties could happen either on purpose or as a result of miscalculation or the pressures of wartime circumstance. Given these factors, it is disturbingly easy to imagine scenarios under which a conflict could quickly escalate in which the regional antagonists would consider the use of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons. It would be a mistake to believe the nuclear taboo can somehow magically keep nuclear weapons from being used in the context of an unstable strategic framework. Systemic asymmetries between actors in fact suggest a certain increase in the probability of war – a war in which escalation could happen quickly and from a variety of participants. Once such a war starts, events would likely develop a momentum all their own and decision-making would consequently be shaped in unpredictable ways. The international community must take this possibility seriously, and muster every tool at its disposal to prevent such an outcome, which would be an unprecedented disaster for the peoples of the region, with substantial risk for the entire world.

Water UQ---General

Global Water Crisis Now

William Wheeler, DECEMBER 2, 2012 Global water crisis: too little, too much, or lack of a plan? The Christian science monitor. http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-Issues/2012/1202/Global-water-crisis-too-little-too-much-or-lack-of-a-plan. Accessed 7/15/14 Contributor
Water is a part of everything we do: It feeds crops, powers cities, cools computer servers, and is key to the manufacturing of everything from clothes to cars. The billion more people expected on the planet by 2025 will increase water demand for all of those functions. And just to feed those people, water withdrawals for agriculture are expected to increase by about half. But it's not only about the additional mouths to feed; it's also the growth of new appetites. Much of the growth in demand will emerge from the swelling sprawl of bustling, slum-pocked metropolises across the developing world. For the first time in history, the share of the global population living in cities recently surpassed 50 percent – on its way to 75 percent expected by 2050. With each step up the economic ladder, people demand more water for sanitation, industry, hydroelectric power, and water-intensive diets – such as preferring beef to wheat, a shift that requires 10 times as much water per kilogram to produce. Urban-rural competition for water has already pushed countries to import grains – "virtual water" – or, in the case of wealthier countries like China, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia, to lease land in developing countries. By 2030, the Water Resources Group forecasts, global water requirements may outstrip sustainable use by 40 percent. And almost half the world's people will be living under severe water stress, predicts the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Already, water stress – where the reliable water supply is being used up more quickly than it can be replenished – is widespread and is expected to increase significantly in the years ahead, particularly in North Africa, theMiddle East, and Asia. By 2050, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, 1 in 5 developing countries will face water shortages.

There is a freshwater crisis in the world Now

National Geographic, No date, Freshwater Crisis, National Geographic, http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/freshwater-crisis/. Accessed 7/15/14
A Clean Water Crisis The water you drink today has likely been around in one form or another since dinosaurs roamed the Earth, hundreds of millions of years ago. While the amount of freshwater on the planet has remained fairly constant over time—continually recycled through the atmosphere and back into our cups—the population has exploded. This means that every year competition for a clean, copious supply of water for drinking, cooking, bathing, and sustaining life intensifies. Water scarcity is an abstract concept to many and a stark reality for others. It is the result of myriad environmental, political, economic, and social forces. Freshwater makes up a very small fraction of all water on the planet. While nearly 70 percent of the world is covered by water, only 2.5 percent of it is fresh. The rest is saline and ocean-based. Even then, just 1 percent of our freshwater is easily accessible, with much of it trapped in glaciers and snowfields. In essence, only 0.007 percent of the planet's water is available to fuel and feed its 6.8 billion people. Due to geography, climate, engineering, regulation, and competition for resources, some regions seem relatively flush with freshwater, while others face drought and debilitating pollution. In much of the developing world, clean water is either hard to come by or a commodity that requires laborious work or significant currency to obtain. Water Is Life Wherever they are, people need water to survive. Not only is the human body 60 percent water, the resource is also essential for producing food, clothing, and computers, moving our waste stream, and keeping us and the environment healthy. Unfortunately, humans have proved to be inefficient water users. (The average hamburger takes 2,400 liters, or 630 gallons, of water to produce, and many water-intensive crops, such as cotton, are grown in arid regions.) According to the United Nations, water use has grown at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century. By 2025, an estimated 1.8 billion people will live in areas plagued by water scarcity, with two-thirds of the world's population living in water-stressed regions as a result of use, growth, and climate change. The challenge we face now is how to effectively conserve, manage, and distribute the water we have. National Geographic's Freshwater Web siteencourages you to explore the local stories and global trends defining the world's water crisis. Learn where freshwater resources exist; how they are used; and how climate, technology, policy, and people play a role in both creating obstacles and finding solutions. Peruse the site to learn how you can make a difference by reducing your water footprint and getting involved with local and global water conservation and advocacy efforts. 

Global Water Shortages Now

Lester R. Brown,2008, Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, Earth Policy Institute. http://www.earth-policy.org/images/uploads/book_files/pb3book.pdf. Accessed 7/16/14“Lester Brown tells us how to build a more just world and save the planet . . . in a practical, straightforward way. We should all heed his advice.” —President Bill Clinton. Lester Russel Brown (born March 28, 1934) is a United States environmental analyst, founder of theWorldwatch Institute, and founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute, a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, D.C. BBC Radio commentator Peter Day calls him "one of the great pioneerenvironmentalists."
While falling water tables are largely hidden, rivers that are drained dry or reduced to a trickle before they reach the sea are highly visible. Two rivers where this phenomenon can be seen are the Colorado, the major river in the southwestern United States, and the Yellow, the largest river in northern China. Other large rivers that either run dry or come close to doing so during the dry season are the Nile, the lifeline of Egypt; the Indus, which supplies most of Pakistan’s irrigation water; and the Ganges in India’s densely populated Gangetic basin. Many smaller rivers have disappeared entirely.31 As the world’s demand for water has tripled over the last half-century and as the demand for hydroelectric power has grown even faster, dams and diversions of river water have drained many rivers dry. As water tables have fallen, the springs that feed rivers have gone dry, reducing river flows.32 Since 1950, the number of large dams, those over 15 meters high, has increased from 5,000 to 45,000. Each dam deprives a river of some of its flow. Engineers like to say that dams built to generate electricity do not take water from the river, only its energy, but this is not entirely true since reservoirs increase evaporation. The annual loss of water from a reservoir in arid or semiarid regions, where evaporation rates are high, is typically equal to 10 percent of its storage capacity.33 The Colorado River now rarely makes it to the sea. With the states of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California depending heavily on the Colorado’s water, there is little, if any, water left when it reaches the Gulf of California. This excessive demand for water is destroying the river’s ecosystem, including its fisheries.34 A similar situation exists in Central Asia. The Amu Darya— which, along with the Syr Darya, feeds the Aral Sea—is now drained dry by Uzbek and Turkmen cotton farmers upstream. With the flow of the Amu Darya cut off, only the diminished flow of the Syr Darya keeps the Aral Sea from disappearing entirely.35

Water UQ---Middle East

Water Scarcity in the Middle East Now

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), 2009, Fighting water scarcity in the Arab countries, http://www.ifad.org/operations/projects/regions/pn/factsheets/WWF_factsheet.pdf. Accessed 7/16/14. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) (is a specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to eradicating rural poverty in developing countries.
The Arab countries account for more than 5 per cent of the world’s population, but less than 1 per cent of global water resources. And as a consequence of the phenomena associated with climate change, the region is facing an even greater water shortage. For 30 years now, IFAD and its partners in the region have worked to develop effective, replicable solutions to help poor rural communities manage their scarce water resources. More than half of IFAD’s programmes and projects in the region include a focus on water. IFAD’s integrated approach supports water infrastructure development, rational use of available surface water and groundwater resources, whether fresh, brackish or saline, and promotes recycling grey water in marginal areas. Improved small-scale irrigation technologies, effective rain harvesting techniques, appropriate conservation infrastructure and improved varieties of drought-resistant seeds also help poor rural people cope with increasing water scarcity. Current situation Water supplies in the Arab countries are under severe stress. Demographic growth (2.6 per cent), economic growth, urbanization, industrialization and the expansion of irrigated agricultural lands have all contributed to a dramatic and unsustainable increase in water consumption over the past few decades. Frequent droughts, in conjunction with an overuse of groundwater and major aquifers, have greatly reduced the availability of both renewable and non-renewable water resources.2 Most of the Arab countries are consequently heading towards a severe water scarcity. A close look at the current status of the water supply shows that it is continuing to decline. By 2025, the per capita water supply will be approximately 500 m3 /cap/yr, or 15 per cent of what it used to be in 1960, when it stood at 3,300 m3 /cap/yr.

Water Crisis Hurts Environment

Water Crisis kills the environment

Don Hinrichsen and Henrylito Tacio 2002 The Coming Freshwater Crisis is Already Herehttp://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/popwawa2.pdf Accessed 7/18/14 Don Hinrichsenis an award-winning writer and former journalist who is based in Europe and the United States. He currently works as a writer/media consultant for the UN system. He has also written five books over the past decade on topics ranging from coastal resources to an atlas of the environment. Henrylito D. Tacio is a multi-awarded Filipino journalist who specializes on reporting on science and technology, environment, and agriculture. Tacio currently works as information officer of the Asian Rural Life Development Foundation.
Homo sapiens, of course, is not the only species that needs nature’s supply of fresh water. A substantial portion of the total fresh water available in the hydrological cycle is needed to sustain natural aquatic ecosystems—marshes, rivers, coastal wetlands—and the millions of species they contain. Thus, as humankind uses a growing share of all water, less remains to maintain vital ecosystems. Of the world’s 734 species of endangered fish in 1996, 84 percent are found in freshwater environments. Globally, over 20 percent of all freshwater fishes are endangered, vulnerable, or recently extinct (Brautigam, 1999). Natural, healthy ecosystems are indispensable regulators of water quality and quantity. Flood-plain wetlands store water when rivers flood their banks, reducing downstream damage. The value of these services can be considerable. New York City, for example, recently invested several billion dollars to conserve and protect water catchment areas in upstate New York—the source of the city’s drinking water. The alternative was to spend $7 billion on water treatment facilities (Revkin, 1997). The world has few examples of successful ecosystem management. Instead, careless overuse of water resources is harming the environment in virtually all regions of the world: • Diverting water from the Nile River, along with build-up of sediments trapped behind dams and barrages, has caused the fertile Nile Delta in Egypt to shrink. Some 30 out of 47 commercial species of the river’s fish have either become extinct or virtually extinct. Delta fisheries that once supported over a million people have been wiped out (Abramovitz, 1996). • Lake Chad, in Africa’s Sahel region, has shrunk in area by 75 percent—from 25,000 square km to just 2,000 square km—in the last three decades, not only because of periodic droughts but also because of massive diversions of water for irrigated agriculture. The lake’s once rich fisheries have collapsed entirely (Abramovitz, 1996). • Despite cleanup efforts, the Rhine River, which runs through the industrial heartland of Western Europe, has lost 8 of its 44 species of fish. Another 25 are rare or endangered (Abramovitz, 1996). • In Colombia, fish production in the Magdalena River has plunged from 72,000 metric tons in 1977 to 23,000 metric tons by 1992—a two-thirds drop in 15 years. The main causes have been pollution from agriculture and urban and industrial development, plus deforestation in the river’s watershed (Abramovitz, 1996). • Southeast Asia’s Mekong River has had a two-thirds drop in fisheries production due to dams, deforestation, and conversion of 1,000 square kilometers of mangrove swamps into rice paddies and fish ponds (Abramovitz, 1996). • In the United States, California has lost over 90 percent of its wetlands, and nearly two-thirds of the state’s native fish are extinct, endangered, threatened, or in decline. Also, in most years the Colorado River completely dries up before reaching its once rich and thriving delta in the Gulf of California. The delta that once supported thousands ofFreshwater Crisis 15 wetland species of plants and animals is now desiccated and dead (Postel, 1997)

Water UQ---US

California Already experiencing water shortage

Suzanne Goldenberg , Saturday 8 February 2014. Why global water shortages pose threat of terror and war The Observer, The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/feb/09/global-water-shortages-threat-terror-war. Accessed 7/16/14. Suzanne Goldenberg is the US environment correspondent of the Guardian and is based in Washington DC. She has won several awards for her work in the Middle East, and in 2003 covered the US invasion of Iraq from Baghdad. She is author of Madam President, about Hillary Clinton's historic run for White House
On 17 January, scientists downloaded fresh data from a pair of Nasa satellites and distributed the findings among the small group of researchers who track the world's water reserves. At the University of California, Irvine, hydrologist James Famiglietti looked over the data from the gravity-sensing Grace satellites with a rising sense of dread. The data, released last week, showed California on the verge of an epic drought, with its backup systems of groundwater reserves so run down that the losses could be picked up by satellites orbiting 400km above the Earth's surface. "It was definitely an 'oh my gosh moment'," Famiglietti said. "The groundwater is our strategic reserve. It's our backup, and so where do you go when the backup is gone?" That same day, the state governor, Jerry Brown, declared a drought emergency and appealed to Californians to cut their water use by 20%. "Every day this drought goes on we are going to have to tighten the screws on what people are doing," he said. Seventeen rural communities are in danger of running out of water within 60 days and that number is expected to rise, after the main municipal water distribution system announced it did not have enough supplies and would have to turn off the taps to local agencies. There are other shock moments ahead – and not just for California – in a world where water is increasingly in short supply because of growing demands from agriculture, an expanding population, energy production and climate change.

Early signs of Water Shortage in US Now

Shannyn Snyder, No Date, Water Scarcity - The U.S. Connection, The Water Project. http://thewaterproject.org/water_scarcity_in_us. Accessed 7/16/14. Shannyn Snyder received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Master of Interdisciplinary Studies in Anthropology and Global Health, both through George Mason University. Her previous research includes the study of access to clean water and healthcare in vulnerable populations and illness and mortality due to inadequate sanitation. Her current work focuses on socioeconomic status and basic needs, as well as environmental and social justice issues both domestic and international. She developed Water Health Educator as a means to connect college students and public health professionals, as well as the general public, with news of community, regional, and global issues concerning water. She is a member of the Society for Applied Anthropology and the American Public Health Association.

It seems impossible that a powerful river, like the Colorado River, is beginning to run dry in places. It seems farfetched that a huge body of water like Lake Mead in Arizona might become obsolete, but these and other dramatic changes are facing the United States. Some of our local neighbors are quickly finding it easier to understand the problems facing the driest and poorest geographic areas of the third world. Some researchers claim that Lake Mead, which currently supplies water to 22 million people, may be dry by 2021. Water scarcity is not just an issue for those who "never had." It is a problem that faces people where water seemed abundant. Pollution, demand and other factors are ushering in these new problems. Because of current water scarcity concerns, hundreds of homeowners who are today illegally drawing water from the Colorado River may soon be forced to cease pumping. As the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation works to preserve local waters, meet demand and prevent future shortages, these people will face the enforcement of fines. Climate warming is thought to be decreasing water containment in the Colorado basins such as Lake Powell. Some of the Colorado River's lower course near Baja, California, is now actually running dry. Populations, especially along the arid Southwest bends of the river face a realistic threat to their drinking and irrigation water supply. Environmentalists suggest low-cost but immediate solutions for managing drying waters, such as digging ponds or underwater receptacles. These low-tech fixes already help farmers in China. Still, water conservation and volume promotion needs to be a joint partnership effort and governmental agencies, land-owners, environmentalists and conversationalists. Outdated damming and gauges result in billions of gallons of lost water, but a quick fix for one local population might harm another downstream. One agency's priorities could harm another's. These facts highlight the need for shared information and cooperative effort. Water scarcity within the U.S. is not just an environmental problem. Our current daily demand for water also affects its future availability. Wasteful flush toilets, non-insulated pipes and generous showerheads are all culprits to the water crisis. The Southwestern United States is already this emerging reality. A crisis may soon spread into other areas of the U.S. when local waterways can no longer replenish their resources to meet our growing demand. Many may "thirst" for more.

Solvency---Algae Desal

Algae farms effectively create freshwater and Ethanol- 1 gallon each for every 2 saltwater gallons.

Algae Biodiesel An Interactive Qualifying Project Report submitted to the Faculty of WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Science Submitted by: Lauren D’Elia, Andrew Keyser, Craig Young, Date: October 14, 2010

https://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-101610-134209/unrestricted/AlgaeIQP10-11-2010[all][final].pdf accessed 7/14/14

Algenol Biofuels uses technology that produces fuel from algae without killing or harvesting the creatures which allows for a shorter turnaround time to make fuel. They claim that they have the potential to produce 1 billion gallons of ethanol per year by 2012 with a gallon costing about 85 cents [18] . According to a corporate presentation on the company’s website, their method, know as Direct to EthanolTM Technology, uses photosynthesis to initiate the natural enzymes found in blue-green algae that convert sugars directly to ethanol (Figure 3) [19] . The method involves a marine strain of algae and therefore can use seawater, recycles CO2 from industrial plants, and can be built on non-arable land that cannot be used for anything else needed for the US economy. Plus, for every 2 gallons of seawater consumed through the process, 1 gallon of fuel is produced along with 1 gallon of freshwater which could in effect help the global clean water crisis though distillation of the ethanol from water would be an added expense for the new company.

Solvency---Desal Works

Desalination Can provide a virtually inexhaustible source of water

Suzanne Taylor MuzzinAugust 4, 2011Better Desalination Technology Would Help Solve World's Water Shortage Yale News. http://news.yale.edu/2011/08/04/better-desalination-technology-would-help-solve-worlds-water-shortage. Accessed 7/15/14. Yale Spokeswoman
Over one-third of the world’s population already lives in areas struggling to keep up with the demand for fresh water. By 2025, that number will nearly double. Some countries have met the challenge by tapping into natural sources of fresh water, but as many examples – such as the much-depleted Jordan River – have demonstrated, many of these practices are far from sustainable. A new Yale University study argues that seawater desalination should play an important role in helping combat worldwide fresh water shortages once conservation, reuse and other methods have been exhausted. The study also provides insights into how desalination technology can be made more affordable and energy efficient. “The globe’s oceans are a virtually inexhaustible source of water, but the process of removing its salt is expensive and energy intensive,” said Menachem Elimelech, a professor of chemical and environmental engineering at Yale and lead author of the study, which appears in the Aug. 5 issue of the journal Science. Reverse osmosis – forcing seawater through a membrane that filters out the salt – is the leading method for seawater desalination in the world today. For years, scientists have focused on increasing the membrane’s water flux using novel materials, such as carbon nanotubes, to reduce the amount of energy required to push water through it. In the new study, Elimelech and William Phillip, now at the University of Notre Dame, demonstrate that reverse osmosis requires a minimum amount of energy that cannot be overcome, and that current technology is already starting to approach that limit. Instead of higher water flux membranes, Elimelech and Phillip suggest that the real gains in efficiency can be made during the pre- and post-treatment stages of desalination. Seawater contains naturally occurring organic and particulate matter that must be filtered out before it passes through the membrane that removes the salt. Chemical agents are added to the water to clean it and help coagulate this matter for easier removal during a pre-treatment stage. But if a membrane didn’t build up organic matter on its surface, most if not all pre-treatment could be avoided, according to the scientist’s findings. In addition, Elimelech and Phillip calculate that a membrane capable of filtering out boron and chloride would result in substantial energy and cost savings. Seventy percent of the world’s water is used in agriculture, but water containing even low levels of boron and chloride – minerals that naturally occur in seawater – cannot be used for these purposes. Instead of removing them during a separate post-treatment stage, the scientists believe a membrane could be developed that would filter them more efficiently at the same time as the salt is removed. Elimelech cautions that desalination should only be considered a last resort in the effort to provide fresh water to the world’s populations and suggests that long-term research is needed to determine the impact of seawater desalination on the aquatic environment, but believes that desalination has a major role to play now and in the future. “All of this will require new materials and new chemistry, but we believe this is where we should focus our efforts going forward,” Elimelech said. “The problem of water shortage is only going to get worse, and we need to be ready to meet the challenge with improved, sustainable technology.”

California I/L

Desalination Helps California

 Brandon Griggs, Wed July 16, 2014 How oceans can solve our freshwater crisis. CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/26/tech/city-tomorrow-desalination/. Accessed 7/16/14. Editor, writer, online content producer.
Within the United States, the water crisis is especially severe in California, which has been stricken by drought over the last three years. California's biggest source of freshwater is the snow that falls in the Sierras and other mountains, where it slowly melts into creeks and makes its way into aquifers and reservoirs. But if the planet continues to grow warmer, snow will increasingly fall as rain and will be harder to collect because it will swell creeks faster and create more flooding, said Bowles of the Water Education Foundation. Seventeen desalination plants are being built or planned along the state's 840-mile coastline. City officials in Santa Barbara recentlyvoted to reactivate their desalination plant, which was built in 1991 but shut after heavy rains filled nearby reservoirs in the early 1990s. Another $200 million facility has been proposed for the Bay Area, although construction won't likely begin for several years. "The key question with ocean desalination is how much are you willing to pay for it? The amount of energy required to desalt ocean water can be daunting," said Bowles, adding that operating costs at the Santa Barbara plant alone are estimated at $5 million per year. But advocates believe the price of desalination will continue to decrease as the process improves. This will be true of the massive Carlsbad plant, said Bob Yamada, water resources manager with the San Diego County Water Authority. "The cost for this water will be about double what it costs us to import water into San Diego," Yamada said. "However, over time we expect that the cost of desalinated water will equal, and be less than, the cost of imported water. That may take 15 or 20 years, but we expect that to occur." Ultimately, experts say, municipalities will need to balance desalination projects with conservation and water from more traditional sources, such as rivers, reservoirs and recycled wastewater. "You can't get all your water from one source and have that source be hundreds of miles away," said Peter MacLaggan, senior vice president at Poseidon Resources Corporation, which is leading development of the Carlsbad plant. "When and if the drought does come, and you don't have enough snowpack in the Sierras -- after 12 dry years the Rockies are seeing the impact of that today -- you've got (water) sources here within the boundaries of San Diego County," he said. "We have a $190 billion economy in this region. It's dependent on water to sustain that economy. So the question you need to consider, is 'What's the cost of not having enough water?'" Drought-ravaged California turns to tech for help

Economy I/L

Water Shortages More Pressing than Climate Change/ Water Shortages Hurt the Financial Sector

Pilita Clark, July 14, 2014, Nestlé warns water scarcity ‘more urgent’ than climate change, Financial Times, http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c8d19bc6-0b49-11e4-ae6b-00144feabdc0.html#axzz37eqOovlH. Accessed 7/16/14. Pilita Clark was appointed Environment Correspondent in May 2011, having previously been the Aerospace Correspondent and Deputy News Editor on the main news desk at the Financial Times, and then Deputy Editor of the FT Magazine. In her current role Ms Clark covers all environmental issues, from climate change to wildlife and renewable energy, but has a particular focus on the impact of low carbon policies on businesses and investors. Before joining the FT in 2003 as a Commissioning Editor on the FT Magazine, Ms Clark was a Senior Writer for the Sydney Morning Herald, where she was a Political Reporter in Washington DC and Canberra. She was also Managing Editor of The Eye news magazine in Sydney, and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.
World leaders must make water scarcity a bigger priority than climate change because the problem is far more urgent than global warming, the chairman of one of the world’s biggest food companies has warned. “Today, you cannot have a political discussion anywhere without talking about climate change,” Nestlé chairman Peter Brabeck told the Financial Times in an interview. “Nobody talks about the water situation in this sense. And this water problem is much more urgent. “I am not saying climate change is not important. What I am saying is even without climate change we are running out of water and I think this has to become the first priority,” he said, adding that global warming got more attention because it had “better ambassadors” such as Nobel Prize-winning scientists and Hollywood film makers. Mr Brabeck’s comments come as businesses are having to adapt to rising water costs around the world and rivalries mount over poorly managed supplies of a resource long taken for granted. In the past three years, companies have committed more than $84bn to improving the way they conserve, manage or obtain water, according to FT research and data from Global Water Intelligence, a market analysis firm. “Until now, companies have been able to treat water as if it was a free raw material,” said Christopher Gasson, Global Water Intelligence’s publisher. “Now, the marginal cost of water is rising around the world as governments enforce rules on its use and businesses are discovering they need to invest in equipment to protect everything from their brand to their credit rating.” In the past year alone, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, two of the world’s biggest miners, agreed to spend $3bn on a desalination plant for a copper mine in Chile, curbing their use of fragile local water supplies. Nestlé set aside SFr38m ($43m) for water-saving and treatment equipment at its plants around the world while other companies, from the Ford motor company to Google, have invested in measures to stem their use of fresh water, an issue Google’s data centre head, Joe Kava, has warned is “the big elephant in the room” for water-hungry data companies. Coca-Cola and its bottlers have spent nearly $2bn on water conservation measures since 2003, according to the company’s head of global water stewardship, Greg Koch, including more than $1bn treating discharged wastewater. “Water scarcity is finally starting to bite financially,” said Andrew Metcalf, an investment analyst. In a report last year for Moody’s, the credit rating agency, Mr Metcalf said the problem already had “credit-negative implications” for the mining industry. Climate change may be playing a role. Energy company EDF spent €20m shifting a water intake tunnel for a hydropower project in the French Alps because the glacier feeding the plant’s meltwater had retreated so much the old tunnel no longer worked. Mr Brabeck said it was wrong to blame global warming for water scarcity, however. “We have a water crisis because we make wrong water management decisions,” he said, explaining that water was so undervalued it was wasted and overused. The politics of water have also become volatile. Green groups have criticised Mr Brabeck and Nestlé in the past over the company’s bottled water business and what activists see as an effort to privatise access to drinking water, a basic human right. Other companies including carmakers, power generators and miners have also faced protests, especially in areas where the world’s largest water users – farmers – face tighter supplies.

Middle East I/L

Water Shortage’s threaten Middle Eastern Stability

Suzanne Goldenberg , Saturday 8 February 2014. Why global water shortages pose threat of terror and war The Observer, The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/feb/09/global-water-shortages-threat-terror-war. Accessed 7/16/14. Suzanne Goldenberg is the US environment correspondent of the Guardian and is based in Washington DC. She has won several awards for her work in the Middle East, and in 2003 covered the US invasion of Iraq from Baghdad. She is author of Madam President, about Hillary Clinton's historic run for White House
The US security establishment is already warning of potential conflicts – including terror attacks – over water. In a 2012 report, the US director of national intelligence warned that overuse of water – as in India and other countries – was a source of conflict that could potentially compromise US national security. The report focused on water basins critical to the US security regime – the Nile, Tigris-Euphrates, Mekong, Jordan, Indus, Brahmaputra and Amu Darya. It concluded: "During the next 10 years, many countries important to the United States will experience water problems – shortages, poor water quality, or floods – that will risk instability and state failure, increase regional tensions, and distract them from working with the United States." Water, on its own, was unlikely to bring down governments. But the report warned that shortages could threaten food production and energy supply and put additional stress on governments struggling with poverty and social tensions. Some of those tensions are already apparent on the ground. The Pacific Institute, which studies issues of water and global security, found a fourfold increase in violent confrontations over water over the last decade. "I think the risk of conflicts over water is growing – not shrinking – because of increased competition, because of bad management and, ultimately, because of the impacts of climate change," said Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute. There are dozens of potential flashpoints, spanning the globe. In the Middle East, Iranian officials are making contingency plans for water rationing in the greater Tehran area, home to 22 million people. Egypt has demanded Ethiopia stop construction of a mega-dam on the Nile, vowing to protect its historical rights to the river at "any cost". The Egyptian authorities have called for a study into whether the project would reduce the river's flow. Jordan, which has the third lowest reserves in the region, is struggling with an influx of Syrian refugees. The country is undergoing power cuts because of water shortages. Last week, Prince Hassan, the uncle of King Abdullah, warned that a war over water and energy could be even bloodier than the Arab spring. The United Arab Emirates, faced with a growing population, has invested in desalination projects and is harvesting rainwater. At an international water conference in Abu Dhabi last year, Crown Prince General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan said: "For us, water is [now] more important than oil."

Desalination is key to Palestine

by E. Weinthal1, A. Vengosh2, A. Marei3, A. Gutierrez4, and W. Kloppmann4 2005 The Water Crisis in the Gaza Strip: Prospects for Resolution Vol. 43, No. 5—GROUND WATER https://info.ngwa.org/GWOL/pdf/060981168.pdf. Accessed 7/18/14. Department of Political Science, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
Another way in which the Palestinian Authority could increase the supply of external water is to introduce desalination either of brackish ground water or sea water. Indeed, the Palestinian Water Authority and foreign donors have channeled substantial resources into planning and building desalination plants in the Gaza Strip. Currently, five small reverse-osmosis desalination plants operate in the Gaza Strip and use brackish ground water to supply ~2.8 MCM/year desalinated water. The overall maximum capacity of these plants is 3.9 MCM/year (data calculated from Assaf 2001). In addition, the donor community is committed to building larger desalination plants that will use sea water as a source for desalination. One of these initiatives is a large-scale desalination plant with a capacity of ~55 MCM/year that is being planned with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (UNEP 2003; Assaf 2001). The large-scale building of desalination plants is a major infrastructure challenge and requires substantial international investment and a long-term commitment on the part of the donor community. Recent developments in reverse-osmosis technology have, moreover, reduced the cost of sea water desalination. For example, in Israel the cost of desalinated sea water that will be produced in the planned desalination plant in Ashkelon is $0.55/m3. As much as large-scale desalination will reduce the pumping from the aquifer and improve significantly the quality of supplied water and the quality of the inorganic constituents of the generated sewage, it will not resolve the water crisis entirely. By 2010, a largescale desalination plant will produce only half of the estimated domestic demand (110 MCM/year). Pumping from the aquifer will continue in order to meet increasing demands of the domestic and agricultural sectors. Thus, in this scenario where the Palestinian Authority carries out water management policies irrespective of Israel, the quality of the ground water will continue to deteriorate and eventually become unsuitable for domestic consumption. Over time, the water supply in the Gaza Strip will become totally dependent upon external sources of water.

Continued Water crisis causes conflict in Yemen

Nicole Glass June 2010) The Water Crisis in Yemen: Causes, Consequences and Solutions. Global Majority E-Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1. http://www.american.edu/cas/economics/ejournal/upload/global_majority_e_journal_1-1_glass.pdf. Accessed 7/18/14
Kasinof (2009) wrote that Yemen’s water crisis has the potential to contribute to the country’s instability and potential trajectory toward failure. According to Kasinof (2009), Abdulrahman Al Eryani, Yemen’s Minister of Water and Environment, said that much of the country’s rising militancy is a conflict over resources. “They manifest themselves in very different ways: tribal conflicts, sectarian conflicts, political conflicts. (…) Really they are all about sharing and participating in the resources of the country, either oil, or water and land.” Current conflicts include a widening armed rebellion in the north and a violent separatist movement in the south. These are intensified by the water crisis, and further prevent the government from entering the regions to try to solve the crisis in an organized manner. Many regions are too dangerous for government engineers or hydrologists to go to. A study by Sana’a University researchers found that between 70-80 percent of all rural conflicts in Yemen are related to water. A geology professor at the university estimates that Sana’as wells – one of its primary water sources – will run dry by 2015, based on the current water-usage rates. In Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city, residents are only allowed to access public water tanks once every 45 days. In Sana’a, there were 180 wells ten years ago. Today there are only 80. “We have a water shortage that reflects itself in fighting between the people,” Deputy Planning Minister Hisham Sharaf said.5 According to Lyon (2009), on August 24, 2009, one person was shot dead and three were wounded during water protests in the southern city of Aden. People fear that if the crisis is not solved, more serious conflicts could break out in Yemen to add to the ones that already exist. The link between Yemen’s water crisis and conflict is not new. Sultan (2004) wrote an article for Asia Times that stated that most of the conflict is between a Shiite Muslim rebel group called Houthis and the Yemeni government. The Houthis are a militant organization from Zaydi Shia who believe they are fighting to defend their community from the government and discrimination. The government believes they are trying to take over and bring Shia religious law to the country. According to Sultan (2004), they are also said to be stirring anti-American sentiment. Sporadic warfare has occurred in the region for several years, but the conflict has recently intensified. The ongoing conflict has escalated to a war in the Saada province, where the country’s army has launched several offensives against the Houthis. This conflict is restraining the Yemeni government from focusing on the water crisis. In areas where the rebels are present, water usage cannot be regulated. The government needs to use its money and resources to fight the rebels – money that could otherwise be used to reduce the effects of the water crisis. Before a country can focus on sustainability, it needs to maintain peace – at least on its own grounds.