While in Dubai looking at water desalination plants, NSW Premier Bob Carr announced that the proposed $2 billion desal plant for Sydney would be located in the Kurnell industrial area in southern Sydney (adjacent to the Caltex oil refinery).
So it is going ahead!
The plant is expected to supply up to a third of the city’s daily drinking water needs.
The proposal is already being condemned by many
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15895531-1242,00.html .
Aren’t these people, who are complaining the water from desal will cost too much, the same people who have been complaining we don’t pay enought for our water and/or we will all be doomed because Sydney is going to run out of water?
I think it is good that a state government is finally making a serious investment in some new water infrastructure.
Interestingly it was only last September, I think the 15th September 2004, that Alan Jones had me on his radio program wanting to talk about water – though he did most of the talking. I remember raising the possiblity of desalination and that ended ‘the conversation’.
There has been some discussion at this web-log on the issue of desalination
https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/archives/000612.html with some useful links with the comments.
I am reminded of a quote from Bjorn Lomborg, “Desalination puts an upper boundary on the degree of water problems in the world. In principle we could produce the Earth’s entire present water consumption with a single desalination facility in the Sahara, powered by solar cells. The total area needed for the solar cells would take up less than 0.3 percent of the Sahara” (pg 153, The Skeptical Environmentalist, Cambridge University Press).
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.