Construction of the second phase of the Southern Seawater Desalination Plant (SSDP) is running to schedule with water expected to be produced for the integrated scheme by December 2012. Inspecting the site at Binningup today, Water Minister Bill Marmion said he was pleased to see the progress that had been made.
“The current plant is operating at full capacity, already producing more than 20 billion litres of water since it was officially opened in September last year,” Mr Marmion said. “When the second stage reaches full production most of our population will be receiving about half of their drinking water supply from the Indian Ocean – independent of rainfall.
“This is essential for the long term because of the diminishing supplies from our dams and the need to further protect the shallow groundwater aquifers beneath Perth.”
The Minister said more than 300 workers were now on-site each day working on stage two and it was expected that within the next six weeks these numbers would increase to approximately 500, as the fast-tracked, $450million second stage construction reached its peak.
“Work is also progressing well off-site on associated projects including duplication of sections of the Stirling trunk main to Perth and a second water storage tank in Harvey,” he said. ”87 per cent of the total money spent on stage two has been outlaid in Australia, with nearly 60 per cent of that amount going to Western Australian businesses.”
Mr Marmion said the water supply challenges for Perth and the south-west corner in the next 10 years would result in the ongoing development of climate independent water sources, including groundwater replenishment, which is currently being trialled at Beenyup.