Where do dry places get water?

 

With California and the Southwest in the midst of an increasingly severe drought, verging on a crisis, the question arises -- where do places that get even less rain annually than these locations -- sometimes a lot less -- get water?

One answer to that question is -- they make it, via desalination.

Recently, they also experimented with making rain.

It’s so hot in Dubai the government is paying scientists to make it rain

"Scientists created rainstorms by launching drones, which then zapped clouds with electricity, the Independent reports. Jolting droplets in the clouds can cause them to clump together, researchers found. The larger raindrops that result then fall to the ground, instead of evaporating midair — which is often the fate of smaller droplets in the UAE, where temperatures are hot and the clouds are high."

What's also interesting from this article is how much they rely on desalination.

"In recent years, the UAE’s massive push into desalination technology — which transforms seawater into freshwater by removing the salt  — has helped close the gap between the demand for water and supply. Most of the UAE’s drinkable water, and 42 percent of all water used in the country, comes from its roughly 70 desalination plants."

And as we know, desalination requires energy.  So with lots of cheap energy, many water problems could be addressed, with partial mitigation possible.

More on this later (hopefully soon).