The tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, who is well-known for his audacious ideas, grabbed the stage at the World Water Forum and offered a message of hope amidst the mounting global crisis of water scarcity.
The UN Water group has described the situation, and it is alarming. Freshwater is a limited resource that is increasingly under stress from population increase, erratic weather brought on by climate change, and uneven distribution. This means that half of the world’s population experiences water scarcity for at least some portion of the year, and billions of people already live in water-stressed areas.
Musk’s idea seems simple but it is deceptive: the desalination process with solar energy being very cheap. Desalination is the process of making seawater drinkable by removing salt from it; once upon a time, desalination used to be very expensive. Musk argues that changes in technology have made it much cheaper although this is now more affordable. He points out the drastic reduction in cost for solar power which will be used to run these desalination plants.
While Musk is not entirely incorrect regarding advancements in desalination and solar technologies — both have indeed become more efficient — his proposal overlooks one major impediment: high initial costs. The plant he highlights, located in Israel and indeed an outstanding success with rock-bottom water prices, had to bear a mammoth upfront investment— $600 million down payment before operation initiation at that facility was made possible.
This enormous amount might be within the means of wealthy countries like Saudi Arabia or Israel. However, $600 million is an impossible barrier for underdeveloped nations struggling with poverty and inadequate infrastructure. In these areas, where more than half of the population may not have sufficient access to clean water, the short-term advantages of a desalination plant are negligible compared to the urgent need for basic essentials.
Is Musk really wrong, then? Not always. Large-scale solar-powered desalination is conceivable, and the technology for it is developing in efficiency. But his attention to purely technological fixes ignores the very real financial problems that emerging countries face.
Musk’s positive view, which tends to ignore the pragmatic aspect, still manages to underscore the essence of urgency for new age innovative approach in dealing with water shortage. On the other hand, these solutions need to consider more than just one angle: that not every country is the same in terms of its financial reality and infrastructure limitations together with technological advancements. Maybe a combination of smaller desalination plants would be easier to implement— alongside water management reforms and infrastructural development.
The crisis calls for an all-round approach; while Musk’s tech-oriented proposal presents some hope, let us bear in mind that real headway demands sound technological solutions which are also affordable (financially) to those who need them most.
