Stg,rehtub,
Gentlemen you are showing your ages and simplicity of thinking by fixating on unrealistic and inaccurate perceptional assumptions. The very thing your LNP exists on and why Qld is so far behind other states. Qld's over all conservatism (non political meaning) means that it is locked into such heavy reliance extractive on Primary industries (sunset industries) rather than investing the future and being Australia's leading state (the California of Australia.)

Melody,
The tragedy is that fear rather than fact tend to reign in the minds of some.
I saw the program and I agree that there are other better and viable options if we would only look and have the courage to invest and support research.

The tragedy is that much of our investment comes from the extractive industries and is reinvested in the same or in southern non productive but profitable 'financial paper shuffling' the result is our vulnerability to events like GCC (causes still to be locked in) and bear markets. Consequently people suffer and will continue to do so unnecessarily.

When by investing in ideas like the one you mentioned it potential for large scale application size is amazing but like Bio-char et al.
Our solution to our problems won’t come in one big Answer but through the careful application of a myriad of small ones. From small entrepreneurial entities rather than huge biased self interested conglomerates or by being scared of new ideas.
Both sides of 'Selfish Castle' need to get their collective acts together and focus why they’re there to Advance Australia Fair(ly).

So because I live in Queensland and because of the LNP - of which 'The Borg' gives me a rash - I'm not entitled to an opinion....yet?.

Yeah, that's enlightened. Thanks, Yoda.

Hold on everyone;
You are mixing up two separate processes.

Recycled sewage and desalination.

Sewage recycling is used if you still have enough water to run the
system.

Desalination is used when you are getting to the situation where you
do not have enough water in the system due to drought or dams that are
too small.

A desal plant would be used to top up the dams. If it were big enough
you would use it to bring the dam up to full from say 80% full.
Most people who argue about desalination have never thought it through.

Whatever the ins and outs it is one hell of a lot cheaper than
moving Sydney or Melbourne.

Delivery of bulk water to the home, be it by recycled or mixed with chlorine or fluoride will not stop bacteria,mold living in the pipes and water tanks which directly supply the home. A practical way to ensure cleaner drinking water for human use is the installation of a small reverse osmosis unit with a stainless steel tank and 3 stage filtration system which includes a carbon filter for sweetness a membrane for filtration of .005ppm and a silver sterilization 3rd stage. These options lie outside the mass medication of chlorine, chloride, fluoride, bacteria, mold, and other additives delivered by prescribed state and local councils systems and give the individual the choice to add what they want to their water.

Melody, would you please explain to me the difference in cost, in both power & money, in pushing clean sea water, or less clean sweage, through an osmosis process. The only difference is that with sea water you start with less of the more difficult to remove pollutants, [chemical] in your supply water.

Sounds like a problem with words here. Must get "recycled" in there somewhere, if it is to be a "GOOD" system for some people. We would all be much better off, if we could get rid of the fashionable green words from these debates.

I have no axe to grind here, as I am one of the tens of thousands on tank water. All my water is recyled & gets used at least twice. However, after gathering, storing, & pumping twice, & maintaining the system, the water going on my garden has cost me 5 to 10 times the price of town water.

If city folk are prepared to pay a similar price for their water, there could be a reasonable argument here, for wind power. It's a dead loss when it comes to supplying power to the main grid.

A desalination plant could have it's own dedicated wind farm, with no mains supply. You would have to be prepared to accept your desal plant would achieve something less tham 30% efficiency, & the water would therefore be quite expensive, but probably no more so than mine.

This should make the water acceptable to our green lobby, as it could now be labelled "renewable" water. Provided the high cost was quarantined to the water supply, so users knew what their renewable water cost them, it might work.

Hasbeen, one word for you: SALT

Seawater is not as "clean" as you seem to think it is. It has a high percentage of salt in it. Salt is ionic in solution and thus reverts to single molecules, Sodium ions Na+ and Choride ions Cl-. These are very small and take much more energy to get rid of than larger molecules that you commonly find in actually very small concentrations in sewage.

If you want desal plants, all well and good, just remember not to put them near to the sewage outlet, as you would be defeating the purpose of your objection somewhat.

Contrary to popular belief, just because you can swim in it without getting a communicable disease, drinking salt water is not good for you and cannot possibly be described as 'clean' (even relatively so) in this type of discussion.