- by Ron Hall
- The Guardian
- Issue #2136
Adelaide’s water desalination plant at Lonsdale. Photo: SA Water
A key feature of the water supply system in SA is the ADP (Adelaide Desalination Plant), which relieves demand on water from the Murray Darling Basin, especially in the summer months, leaving extra for irrigators. Despite extensive use of renewable energy at the ADP, the water produced is more costly than that harvested from the western slopes of the Mt Lofty Ranges or from the Murray system.
Australia – Water Storage Levels in Capital Cities, Percentage of Capacity, February 2025
Adelaide 36.8
Brisbane 87.1
Canberra 92.4
Melbourne 81.5
Perth 42.8
Sydney 94.7
Note: Both Adelaide and Perth experience a Mediterranean climate, which features very dry summers.
From a cost saving point of view, funds should be devoted to maximising the capturing water from the Mt Lofty Ranges. Water from the desalination plants costs four times as much.
Desalination Plants
SA Water operates two desalination plants harvesting seawater. One is located at Lonsdale in the southern suburbs of Adelaide and another at Penneshaw on Kangaroo Island. A third seawater plant is planned for Port Lincoln. The others, about 10 in number, are used to process saline groundwater, often in Aboriginal communities. A privately owned plant at Port Augusta supplies a horticulture business, principally greenhouse tomatoes. SA needs to make strategic use of desalination plants powered by renewable energy to focus on becoming a drought resistant state as opposed to squandering valuable funds on becoming a ‘defence state’ and so a potential nuclear target.
Water or nuclear?
AUKUS and the nuclear submarine project simply amount to a monstrous deception to establish Port Adelaide as a place for the maintenance of US vessels where their spent nuclear fuel can be stored. The same scenario is happening at Fremantle in WA. A much better investment would be guaranteeing a secure water supply for a state where the desert climate is advancing further south at a rate of 50 kilometres each year. Dry conditions have meant the lowest amount of water flowing into Adelaide’s reservoirs in more than 40 years, with combined reservoir levels sitting at their lowest in more than 20 years.
As a result, water production at the Lonsdale desalination plant has been steadily increasing to ensure that supply and will meet water demands through autumn into winter. South Australians are being urged to be “water wise” in a bid to ease demand across the state. However, the Eyre Peninsula, the third area of the state for which the construction of a desalination plant is scheduled, is the only region which is facing water restrictions.
An efficient desalination plant operating on wind and solar power would be more valuable to many remote parts of the state than a nuclear submarine facility with all the hazards that are entailed. Likewise with water storage facilities and pipelines. Remember, water is life.
