Why isn more water piped from Australias far north to supply Adelaide and relieve stress on the River Murray and the Lower Lakes?
A number of large scale schemes, such as building a pipeline from the Ord River in far north Western Australia to supply more water to Perth and Adelaide, were considered to reduce our reliance on the River Murray. The Ord River proposal would cost over $10 billion to supply about 150 gigalitres to South Australia each year. In comparison, the Adelaide sea water desalination plant will supply 100 gigalitres each year and cost $1.83 billion. The Ord River proposal would also have very high ongoing costs and the water would cost $186 million each year to supply the Adelaide metropolitan area. Building the pipeline and keeping it working would also produce a large amount of greenhouse gas, and the implications of this need to be considered.
