I lived in Cape Town as we approached "Day Zero" in 2017/2018, another historically dry region along a long coast. Everyone fought about water restrictions but nobody would consider desalination as an option. This was also a decades-long failure to plan and prepare in spite of dire warnings. "Day Zero" never materialized because we got incredibly lucky and "the drought broke" - meaning we were bailed out for a few more years by irregular weather. There are still no plans for the next "drought". Lots of citizens are still concerned, but no amount of discussion and debate has had any effect whatsoever.

In contrast, I've recently moved back to Israel which has been using and selling desalination technology for a really long time now. I'm living in a desert and have secure access to water.

It's a funny old world, isn't it? Sometimes it seems as if the best we can do as individuals is be born in the right places...