The desalination plant has roused Australian passions in the city of Melbourne

By James Melik

Business reporter, BBC World Service

On the southern coast of Australia, the state of Victoria is now in its tenth year of drought. The authorities blame the current shortage of water on the weather phenomenon known as El Nino. The warming of the eastern and central Pacific Ocean has shifted weather patterns - increasing rain in some places but dramatically cutting it in others, like Australia. Everyone agrees there is an increasing need for more water - but disagreements arise when it comes to deciding how to provide it. Farmers are experiencing a lot of pain - there was a stage when a farmer was committing suicide every day

Tony Kelly Yarra Valley Water Aquasure - comprising of the French firm Suez, the Australian utility company Thiess and Macquarie Capital, has been awarded a tender to construct a desalination plant. It is is expected to supply 150 billion litres of water to Melbourne each year. The project is the biggest public-private partnership in the history of Australia, costing A$3.5bn ($3.1bn, £2.1bn) There is however, strong opposition and a group called Watershed is meeting on 2 March to formulate its strategy on how to get it cancelled. Deteriorating conditions Regardless of the opposing views on global warming, the evidence of dried up reservoirs is there for all to see. "Over the last six years the flow into our reservoirs has been lower than anything experienced over the last 10, 20 or even 100 years," says Tony Kelly at Yarra Valley Water. Water levels are at their lowest since records began 140 years ago "Over a 12-month period we went from no restrictions to very severe restrictions," he says, "and we face the awful prospect of Melbourne running out of water." "Farmers are also experiencing a lot of pain," he adds. "There was a stage when a farmer was committing suicide every day." Utility companies traditionally rely on surface water but they can no longer do so. "People need to think about long-term management of water," Mr Kelly says. Alternative solutions Companies are looking at new ways of getting water and new ways of re-using old water. Water wastage An inefficient shower head uses between 15-20 litres a minutes Each flush of a toilet can be between three and 11 litres A full load of clothes can use between 100 and 300 litres Furthermore, local authorities are encouraging citizens to use less water and the target is to get individuals to use no more than 155 litres of water a day. Watershed believes this is the best solution to tackle the problem. In the city, there are bans on watering gardens outside set times, and on washing cars. There are grants to sports clubs to change the turf to grass that needs less water and there has been a big growth in the sale of huge green water tanks to collect rain water off the roofs of houses. Apart from the tanks, there are other water-saving devices like switches that only allow so much water for a bath, or a shower head that lets less water through. Economic reality The desalination plant will suck water from the Tasmanian sea and after treatment, it will supply about a third of Melbourne's water. There are desalination plants around the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf states have no option but to use them, but it an expensive way of obtaining water. "We have to have more that 100 megawatts of power," says Chris Herbert of Aquasure. "A gigantic wind farm will be needed to supply the amount of energy we need." He says that desalinated water probably costs two or three times more than if you had to build a dam and reticulation system, but it would have cost more a few years ago. "The energy consumption to produce a litre of water has declined as technology has improved," he says. Stephen Cannon at Watershed says this creates a necessity to make a profit from water. The first pipes for a desalination plant near Melbourne were laid in February "With this level of expensive "new" water in the system, where will the incentive be for a sustainable water policy over the coming decades?" he asks. He says the state government has abandoned a business case to make use of recycled water from an upgrade to the Eastern Treatment Plant. That means 100 billion litres of Class-A recycled water will be pumped out to sea. "The government has said it will be able to find a use for only 40 billion of this 100 billion litres," he says. He believes large savings could be made by not using potable water where it is not required and by delivering water efficient devices into all homes and businesses. "What will be the fate of these options when a consortium has designed contracts with its profits in mind?" he adds. Ecological concerns Mr Cannon says the initial objective of Watershed was to prevent a desalination plant being built. But as pipes are already being laid, he says the second objective it to get the best outcome upon completion. The main concern of environmentalists is the disposal of the concentrated brine once it has been extracted from the water. Original plans showed that Aquasure intended to pipe the effluent 1.8 kilometres out to a flat sandy area, to aid dispersion. Because of the costs involved however, that pipe is now expected to go only half that distance. Dr Jochen Kaempf, an oceanographer at Flinders University, is particularly concerned about the impact that would have on marine life. "There is a severe risk and there will be severe consequences for the ecology of the region," he warns.



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