FRESH WATER FOR ARID LANDS—JENKINS 301 
It will be seen that distillation costs show some reduction from those 
reported 6 years ago, and that further reductions are forecast for all 
processes, although their acceptability for large-scale irrigation of 
low-value crops in the United States is not yet predictable. The price 
laid on the water could probably be borne by only high-value crops 
under most favorable circumstances of season and market, and for 
small homestead uses for vegetables and livestock. As processes are 
developed, cost is reduced, and methods are adapted to specific local 
materials and labor, the uses of converted sea and brackish waters are 
expected to increase. 
APPLICATIONS TO ARID LANDS 
Our present interest being directed to the potential arid-land uses 
of saline-water conversion, the following discussion deals with this 
subject more specifically, with application to present conditions and 
probable growth. The special importance of the arid-land areas of 
the Middle East is readily seen in the light of their ancient history and 
their prominence throughout the ages, under conditions very different 
from those of today. 
A primary uncertainty is presented by the wide variations in the 
price and cost levels in various parts of the world. Labor and material 
costs in different regions tend to differ in roughly the same ratio as 
the over-all price levels of the regions. Therefore, adjustments are 
necessary of costs and values, carried over into the applicable labor 
costs and other operating expense when translating costs as computed 
for United States conditions to those elsewhere, such as in the arid 
belt of the Middle East. Where local materials and labor can be used 
in a particular conversion process, cost of the product water for a con- 
version plant would be reduced. But likewise its monetary value there 
would be reduced as well. Water costs estimated for the future would 
then be lessened in the ratio of the probable future price levels of 
the two regions; such value adjustment might lessen anticipated con- 
version costs, possibly to the point of making some developments eco- 
nomically sound in the arid lands of the Middle East that would appear 
uneconomical in the United States of America. For example, it has 
been estimated that the 4-stage flash-distillation plant built at Kuwait 
by the Westinghouse Corp., designed to utilize waste gas at no cost, 
produces fresh water at about 75 cents a thousand gallons, but if 
fuel at United States prices were used in that plant, cost would exceed 
$2. In that case the plant would probably have been designed as a 
9- or 10-stage plant so as to conserve fuel. 
The general pattern of modern development of arid coastal lands 
in the Middle East rests in part on a basis of industrial demand—this 
term being taken to include shipping and other transportation and 
