双语新闻：为实现2060年净零排放愿景，沙特阿拉伯计划利用太阳能满足用水需求

沙特阿拉伯是个干燥的地方。在许多地区，那里的人们依赖于将波斯湾和红海的盐水转化为可饮用的淡水。这个过程被称为脱盐。

Desalination centers supply drinking water to cities and towns in the kingdom. However, observers say the process of desalination is not good for the environment because it mostly uses oil and gas.

海水淡化中心为王国的城镇提供饮用水。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. For this, the country must meet growing demands for water.

王储穆罕默德·本·萨勒曼的目标之一是使沙特阿拉伯成为商业和旅游业的领导者。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. So, the country's leaders say they want to reduce the amount of carbon gases produced. Some people say carbon gases are warming the Earth's atmosphere.

但沙特阿拉伯的环境目标是到2060年实现净零排放。因此，该国领导人表示，他们希望减少二氧化碳的产生量。有人说，二氧化碳正在使地球大气层变暖。

A desalination plant in the eastern part of the country uses solar panels. The Jazlah plant is the first in Saudi Arabia to use solar power for desalination on a large scale. Officials said the panels will help save 60,000 tons of carbon emissions each year.

该国东部的一家海水淡化厂使用太阳能电池板。贾兹拉工厂是沙特阿拉伯第一家大规模使用太阳能进行海水淡化的工厂。官员们表示，这些太阳能电池板每年将有助于减少6万吨碳排放。

More projects like Jazlah are needed because Prince Mohammed has another goal. He wants to increase the population to 100 million people by 2040. The country's current population is about 32.2 million.

需要更多像贾兹拉这样的项目，因为穆罕默德王子还有另一个目标。他希望到2040年将人口增加到1亿。该国目前的人口约为3220万。

Marco Arcelli is chief of ACWA Power, the company that operates the Jazlah plant. He said, usually "the population grows, and then the quality of life of the population grows." That means more water will be needed in the future.

Marco Arcelli是运营Jazlah工厂的ACWA Power公司的首席执行官。他说，通常情况下，“人口增长，然后人口的生活质量就会提高。”这意味着未来将需要更多的水。

Using desalination is a "do or die" issue, said historian Michael Christopher Low. He has studied the kingdom's struggle with water at the University of Utah in the United States. Low said this issue is a matter of survival for Saudia Arabia. At the same time, he added, "there are limits" to how desalination can be done so that it does not affect the environment.

历史学家迈克尔·克里斯托弗·洛说，使用海水淡化是一个“生死攸关”的问题。他曾在美国犹他大学研究沙特与水的斗争。Low说，这个问题关乎沙特阿拉伯的生存。同时，他补充道，为了不影响环境，海水淡化的方法“有局限性”。

Current use of fossil fuels

化石燃料的当前使用情况

The Saline Water Conversion Corporation (or SWCC) is a government company that operates desalination and power plants in Saudi Arabia. The company says it produces 11.5 million cubic meters each day at 30 centers. But growth has come at a cost, especially at centers that use oil or gas.

盐水转换公司（SWCC）是一家在沙特阿拉伯经营海水淡化和发电厂的政府公司。该公司表示，它在30个中心每天生产1150万立方米。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. That is more than 15 percent of today's production.

法新社报道，到2010年，沙特海水淡化厂每天使用150万桶石油。这是目前产量的15%以上。

The SWCC said it wants to cut 37 million metric tons of carbon emissions by 2025. 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.

SWCC表示，希望到2025年减少3700万公吨的碳排放。该公司希望通过从使用热量将水与盐分离的工厂转移到像Jazlah这样使用太阳能发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. But how long that will take is unclear.

SWCC在其最新报告中表示，太阳能发电量预计将从目前的120兆瓦扩大到770兆瓦。但这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.

毫无疑问，在未来，沙特阿拉伯将能够建立生产所需水所需的系统。

"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. He is with the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.

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，比如在红海进行大规模脱盐，并向麦加和麦地那圣城的高地提供脱盐水。”。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么重要。

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. The plant struggles to make enough fresh water because of high demand.

Ras Al Khair中心每天生产110万立方米的水，其中74万立方米来自加热技术，其余来自另一种工艺。由于需求量大，工厂很难生产出足够的淡水。

Much of the water goes to Riyadh. That city requires 1.6 million cubic meters per day. 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.

大部分水流向利雅得。那个城市每天需要160万立方米。一名未被允许与媒体交谈且身份不明的员工表示，到2030年，每天可能需要多达600万立方米的水。

A short history of Saudi desalination

沙特海水淡化简史

Saudi Arabia first turned to desalination more than 100 years ago. 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.

沙特阿拉伯在100多年前首次转向海水淡化。在奥斯曼帝国统治期间，管理人员为观察朝觐的穆斯林旅行者使用过滤机，这些旅行者必须应对缺水和霍乱。

Drinking water has been a problem for Saudi Arabia since its founding in 1932. This led to geological studies that also helped identify the country's huge supplies of oil and gas. Leaders since have supervised the birth of the kingdom's modern desalination systems beginning in 1970.

自1932年沙特阿拉伯建国以来，饮用水一直是一个问题。这导致了地质研究，也有助于确定该国巨大的石油和天然气供应。从1970年开始，各国领导人一直在监督沙特现代海水淡化系统的诞生。