Reports today that the desalination plant under construction to provide water for Melbourne will cost $654 million a year to run regardless of whether it produces any water, is further evidence that it would have been better (and cheaper) to install a water tanks in every Victorian household.
There are some 1,918,583 dwellings in VIctoria (as per the 2001 Census). Installing a 5000L water tank in every home and connecting it to the toilet and laundry would cost around $9.6 billion dollars. The desalination plant could cost $19.3 billion over its lifetime - over double the price of installing a water tank in everyone's backyard. Read the article here.
