Desalinating the Mediterranean? About chimera, business and commons

Abstract

The pressure to increase the production of desalinated water in the Mediterranean does not stop growing. In shelter of the poverty of the bioma and the extraordinary demographic expansion, the desalination industry intends to facilitate the definite "solution" of the water problem in the form of guarantee of unlimited and affordable supply. The nonexistence of public standards about the quality and of community participation in the management they make of the desalination a magnet for the growth of consumption and undesirable activities. As a matter of fact, the problem of the custody of a common good (the potable water) in that of the acceleration of the risks moves other not less crucial ones (a breathable climate, the nuclear security). The desalination becomes a paradigm of how the capitalism uses the crises to generate new chimeric growths.