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Saudi Arabia is a dry place.
沙特阿拉伯是一个干旱的地方。
In many areas, people there depend on turning saltwater from the Persian Gulf and Red Sea into drinkable, fresh water.
在许多地区，人们依靠将波斯湾和红海的海水变成可饮用的淡水。
That process is called desalination.
这个过程被称为海水淡化。
Desalination centers supply drinking water to cities and towns in the kingdom.
海水淡化中心为该王国的城镇供应饮用水。
However, observers say the process of desalination is not good for the environment because it mostly uses oil and gas.
然而，观察人士表示，海水淡化过程对环境不利，因为它主要使用石油和天然气。
One goal of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is to make Saudia Arabia a leader in business and tourism.
王储穆罕默德·本·萨勒曼的目标之一是让沙特阿拉伯在商业和旅游业领先。
For this, the country must meet growing demands for water.
为此，该国必须满足日益增长的用水需求。
But Saudi Arabia's environmental goal is to reach net-zero emissions by 2060.
但沙特阿拉伯的环境目标是在2060年前实现净零排放。
So, the country's leaders say they want to reduce the amount of carbon gases produced.
因此，该国领导人表示，他们希望减少碳气体的排放量。
Some people say carbon gases are warming the Earth's atmosphere.
有人说，碳气体正在使地球大气层变暖。
A desalination plant in the eastern part of the country uses solar panels.
该国东部的一家海水淡化厂使用太阳能电池板。
The Jazlah plant is the first in Saudi Arabia to use solar power for desalination on a large scale.
Jazlah工厂是沙特阿拉伯第一个大规模使用太阳能进行海水淡化的工厂。
Officials said the panels will help save 60,000 tons of carbon emissions each year.
官员们表示，太阳能电池板每年将帮助减少6万吨碳排放量。
More projects like Jazlah are needed because Prince Mohammed has another goal.
需要更多像Jazlah这样的项目，因为穆罕默德王子还有另一个目标。
He wants to increase the population to 100 million people by 2040.
他希望到2040年将该国人口数量增加到1亿。
The country's current population is about 32.2 million.
该国目前的人口数量约为3220万。
Marco Arcelli is chief of ACWA Power, the company that operates the Jazlah plant.
马尔科·阿瑟利是运营Jazlah工厂的ACWA Power公司的首席执行官。
He said, usually "the population grows, and then the quality of life of the population grows."
他说，通常“人口数量增长，人们的生活质量也会随之提高。”
That means more water will be needed in the future.
这意味着未来将会需要更多的水。
Using desalination is a "do or die" issue, said historian Michael Christopher Low.
历史学家迈克尔·克里斯托弗·洛说，使用海水淡化是一个“拼死一搏”的问题。
He has studied the kingdom's struggle with water at the University of Utah in the United States.
他在美国犹他大学研究了该王国与水的斗争。
Low said this issue is a matter of survival for Saudia Arabia.
洛说，这个问题关系到沙特阿拉伯的存亡。
At the same time, he added, "there are limits" to how desalination can be done so that it does not affect the environment.
与此同时，他补充说，海水淡化的方式是“有限度的”，这样才不会对环境造成影响。
The Saline Water Conversion Corporation (or SWCC) is a government company that operates desalination and power plants in Saudi Arabia.
盐水转换公司是一家在沙特阿拉伯运营海水淡化和发电厂的政府公司。
The company says it produces 11.5 million cubic meters each day at 30 centers.
该公司表示，它在30个中心每天生产1150万立方米水。
But growth has come at a cost, especially at centers that use oil or gas.
但增长是有代价的，尤其是在使用石油或天然气的中心。
The AFP press agency reports that, by 2010, Saudi desalination plants were using 1.5 million barrels of oil per day.
法新社报道，到2010年，沙特的海水淡化厂每天使用150万桶石油。
That is more than 15 percent of today's production.
这超过了目前产量的15%。
The SWCC said it wants to cut 37 million metric tons of carbon emissions by 2025.
盐水转换公司表示，其希望到2025年减少3700万吨的碳排放量。
The company hopes to do this by moving away from plants that use heat to separate water from salt to plants like Jazlah that use solar electricity-powered systems.
该公司希望通过将使用热量将水和盐分离的工厂转变为像Jazlah这样使用太阳能供电系统的工厂来实现这一目标。
The SWCC said in its latest report that solar power is expected to expand to 770 megawatts compared to 120 megawatts today.
盐水转换公司在其最新报告中表示，太阳能发电量预计将从目前的120兆瓦增加到770兆瓦。
But how long that will take is unclear.
但这将会需要多长时间尚不清楚。
In the future, there is little doubt Saudi Arabia will be able to build the systems required to produce the water it needs.
在未来，毫无疑问，沙特阿拉伯将会有能力建造所需的系统来生产其所需的水。
"They have already done it in some of the most challenging settings, like massively desalinating on the Red Sea and providing desalinated water up to the highlands of the holy cities in Mecca and Medina," said Laurent Lambert.
劳伦特·兰伯特说：“他们已经在一些最具挑战性的环境中做到了这一点，比如在红海大规模淡化海水，并向圣城麦加和麦地那的高地提供淡化水”。
He is with the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.
他在多哈研究生院工作。
At desalination plants across the kingdom, Saudi employees understand how important their work is.
在沙特各地的海水淡化厂，沙特员工明白自己的工作有多重要。
The Ras Al-Khair center produces 1.1 million cubic meters of water per day with 740,000 from heat technology and the rest from another process.
Ras Al-Khair中心每天生产110万立方米的水，其中74万立方米来自热力技术，其余来自另一种工艺。
The plant struggles to make enough fresh water because of high demand.
由于需求量大，这家工厂很难生产出足够的淡水。
Much of the water goes to Riyadh.
其中大部分淡水供应给利雅得。
That city requires 1.6 million cubic meters per day.
这座城市每天需要160万立方米水。
It could require as much as 6 million cubic meters a day by 2030, said one employee who was not permitted to talk to the media and remains unidentified.
一名未被允许接受媒体采访且不愿透露姓名的的员工表示，到2030年，每天的需求量可能高达600万立方米。
Saudi Arabia first turned to desalination more than 100 years ago.
100多年前，沙特阿拉伯首次使用海水淡化。
During the rule of the Ottoman Empire, administrators used filtration machines for Muslim travelers observing the Hajj who had to deal with a lack of water and cholera.
在奥斯曼帝国统治期间，管理人员为缺水和遭受霍乱的去麦加朝圣的穆斯林旅行者使用过滤器。
Drinking water has been a problem for Saudi Arabia since its founding in 1932.
自1932年沙特建国以来，饮用水一直是该国的一个问题。
This led to geological studies that also helped identify the country's huge supplies of oil and gas.
这导致该国开始进行地质研究，地质研究也帮助确定了该国巨大的石油和天然气供应量。
Leaders since have supervised the birth of the kingdom's modern desalination systems beginning in 1970.
自1970年以来，领导人一直监督着沙特现代海水淡化系统的诞生。
I'm Anna Matteo.
安娜·马特奥为您播报。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
