Brisbane’s newspaper the Courier Mail published an opinion piece by me today titled “Drip-fed figures“. I raised the issued of desalination. Is it an option for Australian cities?
Anyway, the piece begins: “Late last month Queensland Premier Peter Beattie announced $2.3 billion worth of new water projects � the water component of the 20-year southeast Queensland infrastructure plan and program worth $55 billion.
Interestingly, while environment groups generally campaign vigorously against new dams, they have been surprisingly silent on the dams and weirs proposed for the southeast. In fact there appears to have been little critical assessment of the water proposal at all.
The plan focuses on increasing water supply to accommodate the growing population, estimated to increase by a million people over the next 20 years. The program’s budget includes $149 million for Wyaralong Dam, $2 million to investigate desalination options and $23 million for “urban conservation initiatives”.
Curiously, the list of 23 projects comes to a total of only $861 million. It is unclear how the remaining $1.4 billion, to make up the $2.3 billion announced by the Premier, will be spent.
Furthermore, it is unclear how much water the different components of this plan will deliver. I am curious to know how much water the Wyaralong Dam might deliver relative to a desalination plant.
Perth and Sydney are now seriously considering desalination as an option. Certainly the water supply is assured whether or not it rains. The cost of desalination as a source of water is reducing dramatically with improved thermal and membrane technologies.
Globally, desalination capacity has increased at about 12 per cent per year over the past 30 years. There are now more than 12,000 desalination plants world wide, with about 20 per cent of these in the US. Australia is an island with most major cities situated next to the ocean, making desalination a real option for urban water supplies. …”
My friend Warwick Hughes is a member of the Perth Water User’s Group and they are campaigning against the proposed desalination plant for Perth. I gather they recently sent a letter to Senator Campbell that began:
Dear Senator Campbell,
URGENT: Perth water policy crisis
Your input or that of your Department is urgently needed to bring some scientific balance into the debate over Perth water supply options. Current WA Govt policy with respect for Perth’s water supply flies in the face of common sense scientific observations on rainfall, groundwater and rivers.
Current WA Govt policy is taking us down a path to a water supply increasingly based on water costing three to four times traditional sources. Already the WA Govt is constructing one completely unnecessary seawater desalination plant at Kwinana (with more to follow) to produce 45GL of water PA at an investment of $387Mill and rising.
All this waste of our money is taking place when there are several other vastly cheaper options available to enhance our water supplies.
Australia can not afford this huge and pointless waste which is making WA less competitive. ….”
So what do you think about desalination?
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.