Sydney ready for desalination?

Sydney is ready for a desalination plant four times bigger than the one recently opened in Perth, Dr Jim Gill told delegates at the Oz water conference in Sydney today.

Gill is the CEO of the Water Corporation in Western Australia and has been instrumental in moving Perth's water supply towards desalination.

"I think NSW can look towards Western Australia's desalination plant as an example of success," he told Waste Streams. "There is no reason why the same thing can't be done in NSW. The desalination plant in WA has broken through a psychological barrier for the rest of Australia and it's been very, very successful."

Gill believes that WA got hit by climate change earlier than the eastern states and in 2001, plans for a desalination plant were put on the political agenda.

"We had to move ahead," he says. "The climate was getting drier so we short listed contractors in 2002 and kept them on hold. We wanted to see what the weather would do but by 2004 we had to move ahead."

The plant is owned by the Water Corporation of Western Australia and is the biggest in the Southern and Eastern hemispheres. When fully operational it will produce an average of 130 million litres per day.

It is now Perth's largest, single source of water, supplying 17% of the city's needs.

"Sydney could have a weather eye to Warragamba Dam, and if the need arises, it can deliver a desalination plant before it runs out of water."

Kylie Field, Waste Streams Journalist