Hygienic principles of desalination and subsequent conditioning of highly mineralized waters for the population in arid territories

The article, based on own experimental and field studies, presents priority domestic scientific developments of additional criteria, indices and standards for assessing the quality of desalinated highly mineralized waters, which determined the need to use new modern water treatment technologies for both source water, including sea water and, especially, desalinated water obtained from them for domestic and drinking use, reflected in the international document “Guidelines on Hygienic Aspects of Water Desalination” (1980). Developed by order of the World Health Organization (WHO), awarded the Government Prize of the Council of Ministers of the USSR (1988), and found widespread practical application, including in large coastal cities: Shevchenko (now Aktau, Republic of Kazakhstan), Krasnovodsk (Republic of Turkmenistan), Aden (Yemen). The example of sixteen populated areas of Kalmykia shows the need for a more extensive analysis of the quality of drinking water used by the population to determine priorities for health measures and improve water purification systems. The prospects of research on physical methods of water treatment related to conditioning of such biophysical indices of drinking water quality as its hydrogen-oxygen isotope composition and molecular cluster structure are shown.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding. The study had no sponsorship.

Received: July 7, 2025 / Accepted: September 25, 2025 / Published: October 20, 2025

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