Salt for Mexico, fresh water for Arizona? A Mexican perspective on the project of a mega-desalination plant in the Gulf of California

ABSTRACTThis viewpoint contends that the Arizona project, aimed at constructing a mega-desalination plant in the Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortez), in Mexico, with the intention of exporting desalinated water to Arizona, poses an imminent threat to the environment. It points out that this project lacks a necessary environmental impact statement and has not received approval from Mexican authorities. Additionally, there appears to be no sufficient provision for compensating for the potential harm to natural resources, and the approval by the Mexican authorities remains unlikely.KEYWORDS: Puerto Peñasco desalination plantGulf of CaliforniaArizona waterIDE TechnologiesUnited States and Mexico AcknowledgementsMany thanks for the valuable comments of colleagues and reviewers, which helped to improve this viewpoint.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.