What is A Desalination Plant?
A desalination plant is what you use during a drought so you can make sea water into drinkable water. It takes salt and minerals out of the sea water so it is drinkable. The water that the desalination plant makes is also good to grow crops.
Where Is Victoria’s Desalination Plant?
It was built in Dalyston, south-eastern Victoria next to Williamsons Beach on the Bass coast.
Why Was It Built?
It was built because there was a drought in Victoria and the government wanted to make their own water. The drought was in the late 2000s. During the drought the storage of water went from 57.1% in 2005 to 28.7% in 2007. Only 3 to 7% of the water in this world is drinkable so that’s why people don’t want to waste it.
When Was It Built?
People began building it on the 6th of October 2009. It was completed in December 2012 one year later than they had planned.
Has It Been Used?
It was first used in March 2017. It started pumping 50 giga-litres (50 billion litres) of water into the Cardinia reservoir . It pumps about 410 mega-litres a day (410 million litres). The Government says that another 15 giga-litres a year will get pumped for the next 3 years.
What Is A Drought?
A drought is when reservoirs get low so they don’t have enough water for drinking or growing crops. They had some rules during a drought in Victoria:
- No washing your car (seen as a waste of water).
- You could only water your garden every 2nd or 3rd day. (If you did it every day you could get told off by your neighbour.)
- You could only have a shower for a few minutes (3-4 minutes).
Some people in the drought hadn’t seen water run out before.
What Disadvantages Does It Have?
The desalination plant makes pollution, like cars, so it is not good for the environment.
It can cause trouble for some animals living near it, because they have to move homes.
The water prices can go up for people living in Melbourne, which means that they need to pay more money for water.
How Much Does It Cost?
It cost about $4 billion to build it, and it will cost about $1.5 billion to keep it going for 25-30 years.
Great great great job! I learned a lot from this and never knew about desalination plants.