[Robert A Cook PE]

Sub steam and electric distillation units are too small for that: If you’re running the power plant, and the crew is living aboard (to continuously run the power plant!) you really don’t have any excess fresh water to give away.

To a few dozen people? Sure.

To a hundred? Maybe. For a few days.

For a two hundred? No.
Two thousand? No.
Twenty thousand? No.
....

[az_gila]

The US AID informed that the US Navy will arrive in the coming days with a container vessel carrying the following items: landing crafts and desalination capacity of 25,000 gallons/day (95,000ltrs/day). They are working on loading landing crafts, course ways and motorized barges.

---

A bit less than I remembered, but still quite significant.

This came from a UN report on the Christmas Tsumnani response.

ftp://ftp.fao.org/FI/DOCUMENT/tsunamis_05/OCHA/ReportNo16.pdf