THE INFLUENCE OF POLLUTION ON DESALINATION

An increasing number of countries around the world and especially in t he Arab world depend on desalination for water supply. This is due to several reasons such as population growth, a higher standard of living , declining ground water, and inadequate surface water resources. Seve ral techniques are used for desalination such as multistage flash evap oration, reverse osmosis and electrodialysis. Ali these processes are influenced by the quality of the saline water used. This paper investi gates the effect of environmental pollution on desalination. It review s the main types of pollution such as: pollution in oil and derivative s, thermal and algal pollution, metals and chemical compounds and incr easing salt concentrations. It gives suggestions to remedy these probl ems such as selection of site, proper design and the addition of a sui table pretreatment unit.