News
New Goldfields water a step closer
9th November 2005
Green light for $400m desalination plant and pipeline
United Utilities Australia today welcomed the report of the Economic Regulation Authority supporting its $400 million plan to build a desalination plant and pipeline to pump up to 37GL a year of fresh water to the Goldfields.
United Utilities Australia Managing Director Graham Dooley said the ERA report had given encouragement to the company to negotiate a water contract with the WA Government.
UUA was confident it could provide water to Kalgoorlie-Boulder at a lower cost to Government than the current supply and also meet increasing demand from the mining industry.
The ERA agreed UUA should conduct commercial negotiations with the WA Government to supply drinking water to the Water Corporation for existing domestic and industrial customers along the Esperance-Kalgoorlie corridor.
The cost to households would not change under the proposal.
One of the strategic benefits of the project would be that 11GL of water a year now pumped from Mundaring to Kalgoorlie-Boulder could be retained in Perth for metropolitan residents.
UUA would also supply the mining industry along the pipeline route via Norseman and Kambalda. Firm expressions of interest to buy water had already been received from a number of mines, including Goldfields Australia, which operates the St Ives gold mine at Kambalda.
Mr Dooley said the 10-month ERA inquiry had been exhaustive and had shown that the project offered a net benefit under almost all demand scenarios studied.
The ERA also acknowledged that the project offered other regional economic benefits that it had not quantified in the report.
Mr Dooley said the project offered enormous social, environmental and economic benefits to the Goldfields region and the State.
Funded, built and operated by United Utilities Australia with a consortium of major West Australian companies, the project would more than double the supply of water to Kalgoorlie and the Goldfields and employ 200 people during construction, Mr Dooley said.
“This project will bring more prosperity and population growth to this arid but mineral rich region of the State,” Mr Dooley said.
The economic benefits of providing more water to the parched region would expand industrial development, investment and jobs and improve quality of life.
Subject to government approvals, construction would start next year with water flowing in 2008.
United Utilities Australia is a subsidiary of United Utilities Plc, one of the top 50 companies in the UK, which provides water to more than 15 million people worldwide.
Click here to view the ERA’s final report.
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