When Acquasol
began scouting locations for a Australia's first municipal-scale
solar powered desalination facility, it didn't take us
long to settle on Port Augusta, South Australia.
Port Augusta is an ideal clean energy and water crossroads and natural service centre for
the Upper Spencer Gulf. When we met Joy Baluch, the city's mayor, she
instantly understood our ideas.
They were the same as ours: to achieve a real, lasting, secure,
environmentally-sustainable water supply for the city. Joy's support for Acquasol has
been immeasurable.
With solar-powered desalination, Port Augusta will lock in municipal drinking
water supplies without having to wait for other solutions. Water is life in Port Augusta. It's a town located right on the edge of the Outback that's devoid of fresh
water. Port Augusta feels its
vulnerability, every day and acutely.
Living under such uncertainty, Port Augusta has opted for a sustainable, supply-side answer:
producing city drinking water at the local level without waiting for other solutions and without compromising
the environment.
We're inspired by Joy. We're also inspired by the powerful grassroots
consensus in Australia that climate change is too
important for half-measures. In the realm of climate change, half solutions will equal total failure. As Australians,
the challenge we face is to shift dependence away from
old, unsustainable energy and water habits to new, cleaner, more plentiful and ultimately, economic-growth enhancing new technologies.
