In January 2019, Water. Desalination + reuse (Faversham House) reported that the United Nations had urged the desalination sector to handle brine more responsibly. A UN-backed study had counted 15,906 desalination plants worldwide, yielding 95 million m³ of water and 142 million m³ of brine daily. Saudi Arabia produced 22 per cent of the brine, the UAE 20.2, Kuwait 6.6 and Qatar 5.8. The authors named copper and chlorine as the chief pollutants. The authors were based at UNU-INWEH, Wageningen University and GIST in South Korea.
The report showed brine volumes moving into focus as desalination grew, together with ideas for recovering salts and metals such as lithium from the reject stream.