5.9A Hard engineering to increase water supply

• Hard-engineered schemes

  • These need capital, technology and long-term maintenance to be successful
  • Schemes include:
  • Water transfer schemes
  • Mega dams
  • Desalination plants
• Water transfer schemes = attempt to make up for water deficits through constructing systems of canals, pipes, and dredging over long distances to transfer water from a drainage basin of surplus supplies to areas of deficit

  -> e.g. Kielder reservoir in Northumberland
• Mega dams:

  • Dams block rivers so that reservoirs of water build up behind, rather than drain away
  • Dams provide large, reliable supplies of drinking water and reduces water insecurity, especially in areas of seasonal precipitation

  -> Creates HEP

  -> E.G. Three gorges dam in China
• Desolation plants:

  • Extracts the salt from seawater to enable it to be used for drinking and irrigation
  • Expensive, salt waste can damage marine ecosystems and the process uses large amounts of energy
  • As the price of freshwater increases, some countries will look to the sea for water supplies

  -> E.G. Israel and Dubai