Why Desalination?
The water supply we rely upon is challenged by changed rainfall patterns and reduced inflows into reservoirs.
Melbourne’s population reached 4 million in 2009 and is expected to grow to 5 million by 2030, putting further pressure on our water supplies.
Desalination is the fastest growing form of water provision throughout the world. It creates ‘new’ drinking water sources that are not dependent on rain.
Diversifying to include rainfall independent sources of water, such as desalination, provides protection against the risk that dry conditions of recent times continue or worsen.
Small scale desalination has been used to create fresh water from seawater for thousands of years. Advances in treatment technology, energy efficiency and reduced costs in recent decades mean we can now desalinate seawater for major urban water use.
Without assured rainfall, new dams can’t cater for our needs. Dams do not provide more water, they just take it away from rivers and downstream users. Moreover, the most cost effective and reliable dams have already been built.
Conservation is important. Melbourne’s residential household water use has reduced by about 35 per cent compared to the 1990s. Water tanks help save water for gardens but they rely on rainfall and generally don’t provide drinking water. Permanent water saving measures will remain and Government programs are providing rebates for water saving products.
Recycling is important. Melbourne already uses more recycled water than any other Australian city.
We will continue to develop our approach to water conservation and household and industrial use of water, but using less water and re-using some of our water can’t cover the needs of our growing population and effects of climate change.
We need a source of water which does not rely on rain. We need desalination.
There are six large-scale desalination plants either operating or being constructed in five major Australian cities. There are about 240 small scale plants in Australia and around 15,000 desalination plants around the world.
The Victorian Desalination Project will provide up to 150 billion litres a year and can be scaled up to 200 billion litres a year if required.