Victoria built a desal plant in 2012 that was immediately mothballed because the rains came back and the dams that weren’t supposed to fill, got full. The total cost will be something like $18 – $24 billion.
Last year the Victorian government decided to order some water for fun anyway (or it might have been a PR trick so that people couldn’t mock them for paying for a Desal plant that was “never” used). But on Dec 11, the plant started and immediately tripped a circuit breaker (see also The Herald Sun). Stuff got damaged, and three weeks later no one is exactly sure why that happened, so it still isn’t running.
Victorian Dams are over 70% full, the state has just suffered major flooding. The Water Minister Lisa Neville promised on Friday that the 50 gigalitres of water (about a tenth of Sydney Harbour’s capacity) that is contractually due to be delivered by June 30 will still arrive on time.” — The Age.
I bet Victorians are relieved to know that the water they don’t need won’t be late.
The costs of the climate panic are still coming:
The order of 50 billion litres will see yearly household water bills rise by $12.
“Daniel Andrews sat around the cabinet table when the decision was made to waste $24 billion on a desal plant we do not need and now does not work,” said Shadow Minister for Water Peter Walsh.
Around Australia about $1 billion a year is wasted on Desal plants no one uses.
With only 150 years of rainfall data to go from, who could have predicted that 2016 rainfall would be average?
Melbourne Regional Office rainfall up to 2012.
Any competition for this years government waste award?
Most Useless Flagrant Flop of Government (MUFFOG 2012): Finalist — Victorian Desal
h/t Ian.