Sunday, February 10, 2008

Editorial: Desalination

In January I provided a link to a story that I heard on Marketplace about desalination. Poseidon was the company being profiled. In the report they are expecting "this industry to more than triple its global output over the next decade," and predicting that the price of water will increase at least 5.5 percent a year.

What we all need to be mindful of is that though this is a very necessary emerging technology, we are at a crossroads over whether future water will be a commodity or a public resource.

I'm willing to bet that many of these small start-up firms are banking on the rising price of water and while it would not be good to stifle investment and development in this necessary technology, water is a resource that everybody needs and everyone deserves at an affordable price.

Interestingly enough one of the Marketplace links goes to a website called the Water Desalination Report. They claim to be "The international weekly for desalination and advanced water treatment since 1965," but if you want more information than that, you will have to pay.

We cannot allow water to turn into a commercial commodity like oil. It is too important.

By Jason Tafilowski

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