SEAWATER SOLUTION

AS Jamaicans confront the recurrent threat of drought, worsened by the El Niño weather phenomenon, a renewed proposal to convert seawater into potable supplies has received mixed reactions from specialists who see potential in desalination but question whether it is a practical solution at scale, given its operating cost and heavy reliance on energy. The issue was raised during a webinar hosted by the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) last Wednesday. Duane Rowe, the OUR’s director of regulation, policy, monitoring and enforcement, argued that desalination could be an option to settle some of the island’s water challenges. Rowe noted that, having lived and worked in the Middle East for 15 years, he saw how that region — which lacks significant ground and surface water reserves — depends on desalination for much of its domestic and industrial water usage.

However, he reasoned that due to the energy-intensive nature of the process, Jamaica must first lower its electricity costs to make it a viable and economically sound option. “You need a lot of energy to extract the salt from the seawater. And, of course, the Middle Eastern countries, they have a lot of energy, so it only makes sense. For Jamaica, we would need to significantly reduce the cost of energy going forward, and maybe at that point we’ll be able to access that technology,” Rowe said. Calling for umbrella legislation to facilitate better coordination among water sector agencies, Rowe argued that it could address gaps in the current framework that require coordination, including information sharing and joint planning. In that case, he pointed out that greater collaboration between energy and finance stakeholders could bring the country closer to finding a path towards desalination. “[A country’s] energy costs…