What you need to know about desalination, a growing source of drinking water
As climate change intensifies droughts, disrupts rainfall patterns and fuels wildfires, more regions are turning to the sea for drinking water. Desalination, which is the process of removing salt from seawater, offers a way to produce freshwater in regions that lack sufficient rain, rivers or groundwater to meet demand. Today, it supplies water to hundreds of millions of people worldwide, from the Middle East to the U.S., and its use is growing as water scarcity deepens.