Would salt water be a viable solution to our so called "water crisis"?

Question

I was reading on HowStuffWorks.com that our water crisis might be more serious than we think. Would it be a possibility to us salt water in amenities like toilets and water our lawns. I don't know if that would rust our pipes or kill our lawn but is it?

Answer 1

Salt water could not be used unless it was desalinized.  This can be done, but it's expensive.  So it is an alternative, just a very expensive one.

Answer 2

the salts would kill your grass and clog your plumbing

Answer 3

one it would rust our pipes unless theres some sort of antirust coating in the pipes and two salt prevents the earth from growing because it sucks up the moisture similar to the effect of eating too much popcorn your lips become chapped and need rehydration

but if they used salt water and filtered it they might have a chance we are using up one of the worlds renewable sources what are the chances of that slim to none let me know if this helps bye

Answer 4

I'm impressed that your at least exploring ideas.

While we could not use Salt Water directly there are such things as Desalination plants.

I have included a few links below for you. While this process is expensive perhaps it's time that we treated water like a precious commodity (look at what we pay for bottled water) like (let's say oil) and stop believing the world has a magic never ending supply.

Answer 5

You have an experiment, why not try it.  To truly work towards relieving our water crisis we should be building large plants here in the US to remove the salt. We helped Saudi Arabia build their plant, why not here. The only reason I can think of is there is no profit, other then saving lives and that is not enough for big business.

Answer 6

Before salt water e.g. sea water can be used for the purposes we now use fresh water for, it would need to be desalinated. The salt is dangerous otherwise -- salt water cannot be drunk by humans or animals, it cannot be used to irrigate fields, it cannot be used in normal plumbing systems.

On ships they use salt water to flush the toilets, but they have special plumbing and don't have to worry about salt contamination in case of leakages.

In desert countries, especially Israel and Saudi Arabia, they are doing a lot of research on inexpensive ways to desalinate sea water. At present it is very energy intensive.

There is a water crisis -- it is a clean fresh water crisis in some parts of the world. There is plenty water in the world -- just not enough clean, fresh water in the places we want it.

Answer 7

There is no water crisis. Drought is part of the cycle and it moves from place to place , it is not permanent.

Water does not go away if we waste it, it all ends up somewhere and goes up into the sky, comes down over the ground and refills the supplies completely filtered. It does not disappear when we waste water, it follows gravity either underground or above and follows the cycle water has followed since the beginning.

Answer 8

Also.....it might hurt the animals..and the birds and the ducks etc etc.