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Published online 19 March 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/452260a
Water: Purification with a pinch of salt
Climate change, growing populations and political concerns are prompting governments and investors from California to China to take a fresh look at desalination. Quirin Schiermeier wades in.
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I am one of those people against the desalination plant in Melbourne. I believe that the government should do more to encourage us to save and recycle the water we currently use, and allow us to become less dependent on mains water by collecting more of our own. Throughout this drought Melburnians have shown just how much water we can save by making significant reductions in our usage. However from the point of view of the government, these actions do not have quite the same heroic ring to them as spending billions of dollars on a desalination plant. And they do not generate any extra revenue. Joanna Kemp, Melbourne, Australia.