West Australian
Monday 20/8/2007 Page: 24
It has already saved WA from stage six water restrictions and by 2020 desalination and wastewater recycling is expected to be the State's only new source of water. Forget dams, bores and rivers - up to six major desalination plants will be built along the coast, from Esperance to Cape Preston, to quench WA's increasing thirst. Countless smaller capacity plants will also be established in remote inland and coastal communities, including Coral Bay, Yalgoo and Hopetoun and up to 50 per cent of "wastewater" will be recycled and drunk.
Water Corporation desalination principal engineer Gary Crisp doesn't need a crystal ball to predict the important role desalination will play in the State's water future. "Only additional water, provided from seawater desalination and wastewater recycling using reverse-osmosis, can sustain WA's growth and save the State from the worst drought this country has ever seen," he said. "It will be our saving grace, without it we would be on full water restrictions only using water to drink, bathe and wash." In fact, Mr Crisp believes desalination technology could not only solve the nation's water crisis, but alleviate pressure in those global regions where water was scarce and populations were growing. "Seawater desalination is a water source of the future, new engineering," he said.
"I believe only cities with a high rainfall and a small population like Darwin and Hobart and countries with an abundance of water like Canada will resist the move. Even London is considering desalination of Thames estuary water. "If it is powered by renewable energy, seawater desalination will become the only renewable, sustainable water source and it will supplement our traditional reserves in coastal cities in and and semi-arid regions." Earlier this year, Premier Alan Carpenter announced a second $1 billion water desalination plant would be built in Binningup by 2011. The first major sea water desalination plant to be built in the southern hemisphere was commissioned at Kwinana, south of Perth, in November.
The $387 million plant will produce 45 billion litres of water annually, or almost 20 per cent of Perth's water needs. In Queensland, the Government recently started building a $1.2 billion desalination plant on the Gold Coast and work on another $2 billion plant in Sydney will start soon. And many Mediterranean countries, including Spain - which built one of the world's first reverse-osmosis plants almost four decades ago - are rapidly turning to the technology. Mr Crisp said WA's pristine coastline boasted "some of the best conditions in the world" for constructing successful desalination plants.
"Our sea water is very clean and is of a high quality - it is totally free of pollutants and its clarity is high," he said. "Perth isn't usually affected by cyclones, which stir up the water and the seawater temperature range is also good for optimal seawater reverse-osmosis plants. "We also have lots of wind to drive a wind farm which provides a renewable energy source to power the desalination plant. "These very favourable conditions have helped us build the world's most advanced desalination plant in Perth." Mr Crisp said water engineers had been coming to terms with the technology since the mid 1990s with the State's first desalination plants on Rottnest Island and in Shark Bay. "Like desalination, the provision of `environmentally-friendly' water and water services is a business of the future and water engineers will always be in demand," he said.
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