Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Desalinization on Margarita Island

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CARACAS, Jul 26 2004 (IPS) - The fishing community of San Francisco, in the most remote and arid region of Venezuela's Margarita Island, will launch in August a desalinization plant intended to alleviate the thirst of the town's 3,500 inhabitants .

Salt will be removed from water by reverse osmosis, in a filtering process that will treat up to 500,000 liters a day ''without harming the environment, because it doesn't involve chemicals, and the water is not extracted directly from the sea but from underground wells,'' project engineer Omar Elena told Tierramérica.

Six kilometers of pipeline will supply water to the San Francisco households, replacing the sporadic service of tanker trucks, Environment Minister Olga Umpiérrez explained to Tierramérica.