ABSTRACT
The aim of water management must be sustainable consumption. Distillation is more universally applicable and is one of the main methods of desalination. Another popular method is reverse osmosis. In 1992, the Scilly Islands became the first part of the UK to have a public desalination plant. Conversely, desalination is taking some of the strain off the local terrestrial environment to provide the water, and it might be viewed as assisting the recent programme to limit exploitation and re-establish an ecological balance in the Everglades. True sustainability requires more than just containing demand. At best, it requires an active interest in rehabilitation and improvement directed not only at water resources themselves, but at the broader environment that sustains them and that they nourish. The experience of the last 30 years has demonstrated that the resource cannot reliably meet even current levels of demand, and demand is rising rapidly with the 'demographic explosion' both in Egypt and the headwater states.
