Seawater desalination plants (SWDPs) in the Persian Gulf: Its impacts on aquatics and human health

The Persian Gulf is one of the marine environments constantly under different stress sources, such as the petroleum discovery industry, oil spills, chemical contaminations, overfishing, climate change, etc. On the other hand, the effluent of the seawater desalination plants (SWDPs) is one of the most critical marine pollutants in the Persian Gulf ecosystem. Despite the growing need for fresh water in the Persian Gulf countries, unsustainable development of the SWDPs leads to adverse effects on the marine environment and public health. Accordingly, the most acute effects of the SWDPs are increasing the local salinity and water temperature at the discharge points and entering concentrated chemical contaminants (including residues of pretreatment and cleaning chemicals and trace metals) into the marine environment. Moreover, SWDPs outlets many aquatics will die by colliding to screens of desalination plants and exposure to a sudden amount of salinity. In addition, constant discharge of SWDPs brines (with high salinity and temperature) threatens marine biodiversity by changing ecosystems' abundance and species composition at the discharge points. As well as, discharges of the SWDPs negatively affect the aquatic metabolisms and physiology such as osmotic balance, immune system, etc. However, the negative impacts of SWDPs on the marine environments can never be denied, but we need to investigate the effects of SWDPs in the Persian Gulf, especially its aquatics. Because aquatics are significant contributors to human nutritional requirements and indicators of toxic substances that they can convey, aquatic health guarantees human health. Nevertheless, in the end, the present review attempted to reveal the potential adverse effects of SWDPs on the marine environments, particularly the Persian Gulf warn executives to take urgent actions to minimize the adverse effects of SWDPs in the region.

کلیدواژه ها:

Aquatics health ، Seawater Desalination plants ، Human health ، Marine Environment ، Persian Gulf