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Statement by the President Upon Making Public a Report on the Desalting of Sea Water.

October 26, 1964

I AM PLEASED to release the report of the Secretary of the Interior and the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, made at my request, on a proposed program for developing the technology to desalt sea water economically.

The demand for water is increasing steadily throughout the world. Water shortages in some sections of this country threaten to restrict further economic development. This problem is even more acute in many arid, developing countries where future economic growth is absolutely dependent upon finding new sources of fresh water. Within the next decade desalted water will be the cheapest--in some cases the only--way to obtain new water supplies in many areas.

The record shows that the United States stands ready to share its technology in this field with other nations. We have already begun cooperative studies with Israel, Mexico, and the Soviet Union, and have actively participated on the Panel on the Use of Nuclear Energy for Desalination of Seawater of the International Atomic Energy Agency. As President Kennedy stated over 2 years ago: "There is no scientific breakthrough, including the trip to the moon, that will mean more to the country which first is able to bring fresh water from salt water at a competitive rate. And all those people who live in deserts around the oceans of the world will look to the nation which first makes this significant breakthrough .... "1

1 "Public Papers of the Presidents, John F. Kennedy 1962," Item 337.

We have a lot of work to do to bring this technology to a useful stage, as this report shows. We have had a good program in the past, but we are going to ask the Congress for some more money so that we can learn how to produce desalted water more economically. This report will serve as a useful guide.

Note: The report, transmitted September 22, is printed in two parts, separately paginated, but under a single cover and with the overall title "Report to the President: Program for Advancing Desalting Technology" (Government Printing Office). The same heading appears on the title page of the Interior Department's part of the report (35 pp.)The remainder of the pamphlet, containing the Atomic Energy Commission's report, is entitled "Reactor Development Program for Large-Scale Desalting Plants" (20 pp.). The Interior Department report is also published as a separate pamphlet (35 pp., Government Printing Office).

See also Items 480, 672.

Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President Upon Making Public a Report on the Desalting of Sea Water. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/241952

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