Scale forming ions in seawater and the like of saline streams cause engineering difficulties that severely restrict the potential productivity of any desalination method. This invention provides innovative de-scaling methods to effectively eliminate scale problems in desalination plants. As a result of such effective de-scaling methods, this invention also provides a new effective design for Multi-Stage Flash (MSF) desalination plants, which is based on what its coined a Brine-Forward (BF) concept. The BF-MSF concept is multi-boiling without supplying additional heat after the brine heater of each train, and multi-concentration without supplying additional seawater after the first train of the plant.