Tapping the ocean to quench a thirst

Australian Financial Review
09/08/2007 Page: 16

Perth's first desalination plant opened in April this year, and now contributes 17 percent of the city's water supply, at a time when water supplies were being squeezed by long-term drought and below average rainfall, pushing metropolitan dams to historically low levels. Encouraged by the success of the first desalination plant in Kwinana, the WA government recently announced plans to build a second plant at Binningup.

This sparked protests from local residents, who called for the plant to be built at Kemerton, inland from Binningup, but Water Corporation chairman Jim Gill says studies showed that putting the plant at the Kemerton Industrial Park was not feasible. Gill says it was vital to move away from reliance on dams, given it was uncertain when or if the fall in inflows to dams would end.