The great Australian water debate: dam versus desalination

Sunshine Coast Daily (Australia): Dams versus desalination: which is the better alternative to secure water supplies for the parched south-east? Debate has raged since the government unveiled its controversial plan to build the $1.7 billion Traveston Dam and has been reignited with the admission that water prices are set to soar due to a blow-out in infrastructure costs.

The government’s $9 billion water grid is expected to force average household water bills on the Sunshine Coast up by almost $200 by 2012-13. Other households in the south-east will be slugged even more as taxpayers pick up the tab for hundreds of kilometres in interconnecting pipelines, two new dams, a desalination plant at Tugun and a new recycling scheme. The government claims its plan will drought-proof the region and give residents water security but not everyone is convinced.

Both the coalition and the government acknowledge that dams alone will not provide enough water to meet future demand. The water commission’s long-term strategy states that climate change may have a “dramatic impact” on dam supplies and it aims to ensure desalination and purified recycled water cater for up to 30% of the region’s water needs by 2056….