Trying To Make Use of Saltwater

As learned in a previous chapter, saltwater undoubtedly affects the production of crops. The salty water leaves the soil and crops contaminated with a harmful amount of salt. But, scientists are trying to see this situation as advantageous. Farmers struggle with this problem because they cannot produce their crops in a sufficient quantity. Currently, Professor Greg Leslie at the University of New South Wales is working on a project to turn salty groundwater into a usable resource.

In this plan, a subsurface drip irrigation system is using a reverse osmosis membrane. In this irrigation system, plants draw saltwater through the membrane, removing the salt. Previously, irrigation techniques required high energy consumption for desalination. But with this reverse osmosis, the root systems provide enough of a pressure gradient so the water can move through the memrbrane without high energy consumption.


Because we recently leaned about this subect, I personally hope this system will prevail. Farmers stuggle everyday because of salt in their water. It degrades their soil and harms crops which are essentially their main source of income. People do not realize this is a huge problem in the US as our amount of freshwater is rapidly decreasing. Not one person can argue with the fact that water is overused and wasted. And this problem leads to more problems, like saltwater intrusion into the limited supply of freshwater left. Because the usage of water is not declining, people are just going to have to find ways to work with salty water.

University of New South Wales (2008, September 15). Saltwater Solution To Save Crops. ScienceDaily. Retrived November 28.