This year, some of the drinking water in Barcelona actually came from the sea. Container ships from Marseille and Southern Spain supplied water to the drought-ridden capital of Catalonia, but this was perhaps the first and last time. As early as 2009, the city will quench its thirst in the sea. By this time next year, a huge seawater desalination plant will have been built by Degrémont (Suez Environnement) to supply the 1.3 million people living in the Barcelona region. And this is not at all exceptional! Though the 51 million cubic meters of desalinated water produced worldwide represents less than 1% of the world’s total water consumption, almost half of the planet’s population lives on the coast. The number of countries betting on seawater desalination is multiplying. Leading the way is the Persian Gulf, which already has huge plants that produce half of the world's desalinated water. But Asia, Europe, Australia and the United States are not far behind. Worldwide, desalinated water volumes are growing by 15% each year. More than 100 million cubic meters of seawater will have been converted into drinking water by 2015, according to analysts from Global Water Intelligence.