Science Forums 2

[Michaelangelica]

Big argument about Sydney's proposed de-sal plant.
It is very expensive
Still can't work out why they can't use base load electricty in Power plants

QUENTIN DEMPSTER: With the drought and expected crop failure in the Murray-Darling Basin, fruit and vegetable prices are expected to rise sharply soon.

With a carbon trading scheme coming no matter who wins the federal election electricity prices are also expected to rise significantly.

From June next year water prices for consumers in Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Wollongong and the Illawarra, covering about 4.5 million people could rise by 30 per cent and more if you are a big water user.

Equipped with a state election mandate to build a $1.8 billion desalination plant at Kurnell, the Iemma government is now preparing the bill for consumers via its state-owned utility Sydney water.

Even if the desal plant is not needed to supplement drinking water, under the terms of the public private partnership consumers will pay to have it operationally ready.

A Sydney water submission to IPART, the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal this week revealed the fine print for the first time.

Shortly a studio debate.

First, the big water bill coming to a letter box near you.

At the moment the average household water bill is around $800 a year. To keep Sydney Water solvent and pay for the desalination plant which is to be expensively powered by renewable energy, and the big recycling schemes at Rouse Hill, Wollongong, St Marys and Fairfield, Sydney Water's asking IPART to approve a price rise per household of $275 over four years.
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KERRY SCHOTT: If the desal plant's not operating, the cost of having it available and just being there is about $9 million per year and that's having the plant available and not producing any water.

The minute its producing water if it's going at full pelt, that's $55million. And the cost of water from the desal plant works out at 60 cents a kilolitre. And that compares to what I'm currently paying the catchment authority which is 56 cents a kilolitre. So its a little bit more expensive but its not that bad.

Stateline NSW
China running out of fresh water

For three decades, water has been indispensable in sustaining the rollicking economic expansion that has made China a world power. Now, China’s galloping, often wasteful style of economic growth is pushing the country toward a water crisis. Water pollution is rampant nationwide, while water scarcity has worsened severely in north China — even as demand keeps rising everywhere.

China is scouring the world for oil, natural gas and minerals to keep its economic machine humming. But trade deals cannot solve water problems. Water usage in China has quintupled since 1949, and leaders will increasingly face tough political choices as cities, industry and farming compete for a finite and unbalanced water supply.

One example is grain.
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An economic powerhouse with more than 200 million people, it has limited rainfall and depends on groundwater for 60 percent of its supply. Other countries, like Yemen, India, Mexico and the United States, have aquifers that are being drained to dangerously low levels. But scientists say those below the North China Plain may be drained within 30 years.

“There’s no uncertainty,” said Richard Evans, a hydrologist who has worked in China for two decades and has served as a consultant to the World Bank and China’s Ministry of Water Resources. “The rate of decline is very clear, very well documented. They will run out of groundwater if the current rate continues.”

Water Scarcity Threatens China's Future - Environment - New York Times