To mark World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development (4 March), we asked change-makers how engineering is shaping our lives.
Faced with declining rainfall, engineers and experts in Western Australia are turning to non-climate dependent water sources to help future-proof the state’s supply.
This includes establishing Australia’s first full-scale groundwater replenishment scheme, which began discharging water into Perth’s aquifers in 2017.
Check out the infographic to find out more.
Hopefully the electric power for the desal plant is sourced from green non GHG energy as load could approach 100MW for this type of plant.
The transcontinental pipeline idea from the Kimberly (Argyle Dam) to eastern Australia is worth investigating, but like fast rail, it has gone quiet. Has a cost/ benefit analysis been done? A completed project would ensure improved environmental and agricultural flows.
Generally Australia seems to do more squabbling over the ever diminishing resource of fresh water than using engineering to stave off drought in conjunction with ever increasing demand for fresh water. Perhaps it could learn from the city of Perth.
And congratulations to city of Perth on managing their water supply effectively under conditions of historically reducing rainfall. A wider challenge is for the WA agricultural sector to manage their water shortages and keep farmers in business. Hopefully engineering can help here as well.