Insufficient rainfall caused Government to ‘panic’
Water experts believe that the Government panicked and decided to build a desalination plant and pipeline to counter scanty rainfall.
In spring of 2006, the fall of rain was only 100 of the usual 600 billion litres.
Early 2010, the Brumby government announced stage two of their water supply plan, introducing the Sugarloaf Pipeline in February and a $3.5 billion desalination plant at Wonthaggi, Victoria.
According to Sustainable Water Use Expert, Dr Grace Mitchell, the desalination plant is energy intensive and will impact the environment negatively.
CEO of Environment Victoria, Kelly O’Shanassy said, “there has been scientific analysis on all our large rivers in Victoria. They found that all our large rivers don’t have enough water in them to meet the basic level of health they need”.
“I do recognised that they are committed to securing water for consumers but if you don’t have a healthy river, you can’t have a secure water supply for consumers”, said O’Shanassy.
Both Mitchell and O’Shanassy believe that a better alternative would be to recycle water.
“Recycled water is less energy intensive, it’s cheaper than desalination water and you don’t need an ocean right next to you”, said O’Shanassy.
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Sugarloaf Pipeline and Wonthaggi Desalination plant
