Why cant we use salt water to go through a water treatment plant for our fresh water?

Answer 1

We can and do in some areas. Reverse osmosis has been around for over 30 years, but the amounts produced are limited by power and costs of the units. In most areas, it is more costly than providing fresh water, and with rising energy costs, this may continue to be the case where it is now the case. As for processing salt water through conventional processes, the conventional processes don't remove salt content, which is about 35000 ppm, while drinking water should be around 100 ppm. Another alternative is to use potable water for drinking and cooking while using non-potable water for flushing toilets, which is a high water-use activity. This requires a dual water system, which would have to be accepted by its users.

Answer 2

We can use make salt water into fresh water with a water treatment plant. The problem is that that treatment takes considerable energy. That energy and processing usually makes water recovered from saltwater more expensive than other options.

There are places where de-salination is used to provide fresh water because there are no better options. Reverse Osmosis is a fairly new technology and often has the lowest energy requirement of the de-salination processes in use.

Answer 3

In order to make salt water potable it must be distilled. Our fresh water plants do not distill water. There is also a danger that the salt build up could damage the machinery.

Answer 4

it is an exstremly expensive process and so far nobody has been able to come up with a satisfying solution of changing sea water nito irregation water ,if they had we would have been using it long ago