In the state of Johor in southern Malaysia, the government will collaborate with the private sector to create a desalination plant.  Located near Forest City, the proposed plant is poised to become the largest in the nation.  According to the chairman of the state-run Public Works, Rural and Regional Development Committee, Datuk Hasni Mohammad, Johor state will also explore other options for expanding its water supply (through focus on groundwater resources and rainwater harvesting).^[1] 

Meanwhile, this summer, a lack of drinking water led hundreds of despairing individuals across southern India to protest the shortcomings of the Modi government’s relief efforts.^[2]  In response, the government began to implement water deliveries via trains, trucks, and tractors, to minimize the devastations of this year’s drought.  This past April, the government estimated that the drought affected 330 million people, after two years of “weak monsoons.”^[3]

^{This photo features Saroj and her children in northern India. Saroj’s husband committed suicide in 2015. He was one of hundreds of thousands of Indian farmers who have killed themselves over the past 20 years. Credit: Pedro Ugarte/ AFP [4]}

Masdar, also known as the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co., plans to develop renewably sourced desalination plants through international ventures by 2018.^[5]  Even though these environmentally-friendly plants are 20-25 percent less costly than conventional facilities, the global capacity for renewable desalination approximates 1.7 million cubic metres per day; this is a small piece of the 86.8 million cubic metres per day produced by conventional desalination plants (as of mid-2015).^[6] 

China Communications Construction Company (CCCC)—China’s largest infrastructure engineering and construction company—has placed a $650 million bid for the desalination business of Israeli Company IDE.^[7]  At least two other companies have also placed bids for the business.  Final offers are due in November.  As reported in Desalination.biz, in 2011, the World Bank “banned CCCC from working on any road or bridge projects that it finances until January 12, 2017.”  The World Bank’s Integrity Vice Presidency (INT) initiated an investigation through the National Roads Improvement and Management Project—which discovered the company’s fraudulent practices.^[8]  In 2010, the INT conducted 117 investigations, “with 45 debarments of firms and individuals for engaging in wrongdoing.”^[9]