Reverse Osmosis and Other Treatment Technologies - Global Drinking Water Management and Conservation - page 54

Dore ( 2005 ) estimated that the federal government ' s financial assistance was in the

range of $5,000 $125,000, with the average grant amounting to $60,000 per

research or study activity. In 2000, 15

-

financial assistance agreements were

awarded.
Figure 4.3 shows how the unit capital costs of installed capacity decrease as the
capacity increases. Furthermore, the total unit costs (capital and operating costs per
cubic meter of desalinated water) have been decreasing, while the cost of obtaining
and treating water from conventional sources has been increasing (see Fig. 4.1 for
the distribution of the cost components for RO). The reasons for the increase are
summarized in Table 4.1 . In fact, water quality standards have become more
stringent in many countries, requiring increased levels of treatment. Also, con-
ventionally treated water costs more because of an increased demand for water,
resulting in the development of more expensive conventional sources, since the less
expensive sources have already been used.

Fig. 4.3 Economies of scale in the capital costs of seawater reverse osmosis desalination plants
(Global Water Intelligence 2009 )

Table 4.1 Reasons for the rising costs of traditional water sources
Increasing levels of treatment being required to meet more stringent water quality standards
Increasing demand for freshwater
Decreasing supplies of freshwater
Increasing costs of maintaining existing water supplies in a fresh state