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Desalination plant to the rescue

Some solutions to the water crisis caused by the current drought are beginning to come through and this week the Victorian Premier Steve Bracks announced the new desalination plant to be built near Wonthaggi.

This sounds like a good idea because the desalination plant when fully operational will supply 30 percent of Melbourne's water needs. I think that it’s quite a lot of water from one source and also it will continue providing water irrespective of the prevailing weather conditions.

The biggest price to be paid I think will be the environmental impact of such a big plant in an rural area like the Wonthaggi region. Early this year I went to Inverloch which is a few kilometres from Wonthaggi and I assume that the area will not be the same again with the building of the desalination plant.

The desalination plant will be the biggest in Australia but the only other desalination plant in Australia is in Western Australia and one that became operational a few years ago and so the comparison is just between two plants here.

Once the plant is finished, the other thing to consider will be the cost of water to Melbournians. This $3.1 billion desalination is definitely going to water make water more expensive but the question is by how much. Nobody is talking about it yet but I think soon we will start to have slight increases in the price of water and before long I will become quite expensive.

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