Intelligent solutions for the production of environmentally-friendly power and water

Water Market Reform

Since the late 1940s, the Upper Spencer Gulf has depended for its drinking water upon a 360-kilometer long conduit of concrete known as the Morgan/Whyalla Pipeline which gets frailer by the year. Unfortunately, this water supply vulnerability is hindering business investment in both Port Augusta and the Upper Spencer Gulf as a whole.

Realising current levels of exploitation of the Murray River are unsustainable, future water supplies from the river can't credibly be assured and keen to find environmentally-sustainable alternatives, the city of Port Augusta reached agreement with Acquasol to take Acquasol's drinking water delivered through SA Water's pipes.

The deal is the first in Australia to be agreed directly between a municipality and a private water supplier and sets a national precedent for increased market competition as state-owned water monopolies lose their protected market position as sole drinking water suppliers to the nation. Competition will increase supply and choice, encourage investment and reduce consumer prices.

Port Augusta Mayor Joy Baluch

For Port Augusta Mayor Joy Baluch, change can't come quickly enough.

"In Port Augusta, we're constantly reminded we live in the driest inhabited region of the driest state in the world's driest inhabited continent," she says. "We need climate change and drought solutions now and we're ecstatic solar-powered desalination will form part of our solution."

Oer time, Joy sees Port Augusta evolving into a centre of excellence in environmentally-sustainable water use.

"We already have the most aggressive municipal water recycling and reuse program anywhere in Australia," she says. "With solar-powered desalination, we'll be an example of how to get things right by the environment without compromising the local economy or the needs of society."

"In fact, we expect it to be the other way around," she explains. "Economic growth in our city will be enhanced by the knowledge we control our own water and power destiny without having to rely on other levels of government."