Watch the video

Desalination

Algiers, Algeria

Algeria is 95 percent arid land. Fresh water is a luxury most people enjoy only two to three hours a day in the capital city of Algiers. GE is working toward making this ancient history.

Start Film

View in QuickTime

Download Film

Download
Choose the format you want from the list below

• Customer stories

  By removing salt from seawater, GE's newest desalination plant in Algiers will supply enough drinking water to serve 25 percent of the capital city's population.

  Read more

• Interview with Georges El Haddad

  

  Georges El Haddad is the Director General of Hamma Water Desalination (HWD).

  Watch the video

• Product page
  • The Hamma Water Desalination facility is located in Algiers, Algeria. This city, resting in a natural bay on the northernmost edge of Africa, has long been a site of change. Over the centuries the course of history has flowed through this region.
  • Today, Algiers is a proud mix of people and cultures. The coastal city's population has grown to 3.5 million. In a country where only 3 percent of the land is arable, water is a necessity.
  • Currently, potable water is only available two to three hours each day for the majority of the population of Algiers. The Hamma Water Desalination facility will bring potable water to more that 1 million people in the city, relieving a huge strain on the city's population.
  • GE is the largest supplier of desalination plants in a world in which 1 billion people now lack access to clean water and nearly half the world's population will live in water-stressed areas by 2025.
  • GE's installed desalination platforms reclaim more than 2 trillion gallons of water a day, equal to the daily water required by more than 150 million of the world's poorest citizens.
  • GE built and operates the world's largest reverse osmosis water desalination facility, which recycles 100 million gallons of wastewater a day into water for industrial and agricultural uses.
  • Reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plants require substantially less energy than thermal desalination processes such as multi-stage flash (MSF), making them substantially more cost-effective for poorer nations.
  • The energy efficiency of an RO desalination plant results in significantly lower environmental impacts for each gallon of water purified compared to thermal desalination facilities.
  • If all existing MSF desalination plants were switched to reverse osmosis, the reduced greenhouse gas emissions annually would be equal to taking more than 73 million U.S. cars — half of all U.S. autos — off the road for a year.
  • RO desalination plants require 25 percent less land area than competing desalination platforms, reducing their environmental footprints and making them easier to site.