Desalination
Tackling the dryness in Australia
Water recycling
versus desalination?
by Stuart Khan, Associate Professor in Environmental Engineering, UNSW Australia
* From www.theconversation.com media service.
C
oncerns about drought and water supply are once more building in eastern Australia. Recent
reports from Victoria show the state government is considering switching on the so-far-unused
desalination plant to supply Melbourne. While Melbourne doesn’t currently need extra water,
this might free up other water allocated to the city to be diverted to regional communities in the north
of the state where water shortages are looming.
When drought strikes, people and governments look to shore up
water supplies. In Australia, politicians have focused on building
more dams and long pipelines, at the expense of alternative
sources such as recycled water.
It has been widely assumed that drinking recycled water, from
sources such as sewage, is not acceptable to the public. But an
Australia-first survey released by the Australian Water Association
shows H X