Future electricity demand for desalination is why windmills and solar panels won't be enough. The original Snowy 1 would probably not get built today yet it diverts a huge amount of water to the inland. We need it yet we despise it. Just this week Pt Lincoln SA announced a new desal for a protected bay while another is planned a bit further up the coast. Where will the power come from? Apparently a hydrogen power station despite the fact no such thing exists on a commercial basis.

On the one hand we have the fantasy of mythical power sources against the reality of a booming population. New migrants please bring several hundred thousand litres of water with you. Everything will go up in price, not just housing but water, electricity and food. Yet every politician wants more people. Make the politicians pay for it.

It ain`t rocket science.
TOO MANY HUMANS.

This article is nonsense.

By far the biggest consumer of water in Australia is the agriculture sector – accounting for almost 75% of consumption. Most agricultural produce is exported. In effect, we export water embedded in agricultural products because water is cheap and abundant in Australia. There is a useful discussion to be had about whether agriculture is under-charged for the water it uses, or whether more should be reserved for the environment. But population growth has negligible effect on agricultural water consumption.

Households account for just 13% of water consumption in Australia.

Australia’s population grew by 11% between 2013-14 and 2021-22 (the period covered in the latest water account) but households’ water consumption rose by just 5%. Average household use has fallen steadily over time. In other sectors water consumption intensity has fallen even more sharply. Over the same 8-year period Australia’s total water consumption actually decreased by 8%.

Desalinating seawater is sustainable. Properly planned, it is a great use of renewable energy, because it can be done when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining – when renewable energy supply is at its highest - and so has negligible marginal cost or greenhouse gas emissions. Sydney’s desalination plant uses 100% renewable energy.

Data sources:

Water consumption:
http://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/environment/environmental-management/water-account-australia/2021-22

Population:
http://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/national-state-and-territory-population/mar-2024#data-downloads

Sydney desalination:
http://sydneydesal.com.au/calls_to_action/renewable-energy/

Desalination is only an option for small scale operation up to 300-500 Kl/day for communities of up to 500 people. Any more & the effort & cost become unviable ! Not to mention the exhaust from Diesel generated electricity to run such plants. There's a blaring silence regarding the brine entering the waterways from large Desal plants. I believe there's a huge blob of brine in a river in Perth WA.

Hi, Ateday. The report, and this review, make it very clear that agriculture is our biggest water-user, and so far, TOTAL consumption has been static.

Point is, the party might be over. Households can't keep on getting more "efficient" in water use. Desal is very costly to site, to build and to run, running them on attractively "renewable" or "net zero" energy is a con.

Sure, Down Under can stay on our same road, but it's a bonanza for "stakeholders" not hapless voters (consumers), who DON'T want massive migration. For water "planners", a Melbourne of 10m chugging on "manufactured" water looks groovy. To others, it looks nuts.

Indyvidual

Perth has two desalination plants with combined capacity of 150 billion litres of water a year which supply about 45% of its water supply.
http://www.watercorporation.com.au/Our-water/Desalination

Another is under construction, due to commence production in 2028.
http://www.watercorporation.com.au/Our-water/Desalination/Alkimos-Seawater-Desalination-Plant

In all three cases hypersaline water is discharged into the Indian Ocean, so desalination has no effect on river or groundwater salinity. And they are powered by renewable energy.

Steve S

Your article links “water deficits” to “rampant population growth”. But

- Total water consumption across all uses – households, agriculture and other industry - has fallen between 2014-15 and 2021-22.

- Household consumption is a small proportion of our total water use and it is growing less quickly than population growth.

- Desalination is a viable option to ensure reliable high-quality potable water supplies and, if powered by renewable energy, is environmentally sustainable.

There are rational debates to be had about Australia’s population growth, and also about water use and management in a drying climate. But baseless scaremongering about water shortages caused by population growth contributes nothing useful to either.