Australia Poised for Desalination Boom as Water Shortages Loom

Australia is on track for a significant expansion of desalination capacity — converting seawater to freshwater — to meet the needs of a swelling population at a time of declining average rainfall.

The world’s driest inhabited continent is projected to build or expand 11 desalination plants worth more than A$23 billion ($15 billion) over the next 10 years, according to a research report by Dominic McNally at Oxford Economics.