WaterCorp, page-3

I am wondering about the term "climate independent " in reference to deep underground aquifers. For them to be truly climate independent, the extraction of freshwater would have to be equal to or less than the amount that replenishes the aquifer ( by either natural or artificial processes).

I am not sure of how much expense goes toward treating waste water that that they inject into the aquifer but I imagine it would not be cheap.

Were it to be found that the cost of producing desalinated water from renewable energy was close to the cost of treating waste water, surely that would make a case for that process to be greatly increased.

It is fortunate (or cleverly planned) that the Perth Wave Energy Project is located very close to the Kwinana desalination plant. That puts CWE in a very good position to get involved in either desalination for the water grid or for recharging the depleted aquifers.

It is a toss up whether Western Australia is more in trouble over it's electricity supply or it's supply of fresh water, I suspect it is the latter.

WA has shown to what lengths it is prepared to go to protect the little water resources they have. Water Corporation is up their with the world leaders when it comes to innovation in desalination. It is not too much of a stretch to think that they might be the first company in the world to include wave energy, for producing fresh water to replenish underground aquifers or to be fed directly into the water grid.

An underground aquifer can be looked upon as a giant reservoir. Having the ability to top up the reserves of water in the aquifer on demand, would provide the water security that Western Australia desperately needs to keep on developing.

The Federal Government has the drought proofing of Northern Australia using a number of dams as a future policy. In my opinion the money would be better spent saving or creating new supplies of water where our population centres are already located.

Building giant dams in Northern Australia might seem like a good idea but at what cost and for what purpose?

A giant rechargeable aquifer that does not suffer evaporation loss, seems like a much better use of Australian tax payers money.

I will be interested to see what Water Corporation comes up with in their plans for climate independent water supply in Perth.