Cost remains stumbling block for Kimberley water pipeline

Water access and usage is fast becoming a major infrastructure issue Australia wide, with supply and demand inequities prompting business and government to develop innovative strategies and solutions.

Civil engineer Malcolm Deeks feels so strongly about the issue that he has published his own review of the state government’s independent report, released last year, on bringing water from the Kimberley to Perth.

Mr Deeks has developed a water strategy that promotes the construction of a pipeline from Lake Argyle to the metropolitan area a large desalination plant, or both.

He says the issue of water availability became significant for him following a visit to the Kimberley about 10 years ago, with a trip to Lake Argyle conveying the scale of the resource potentially available to metropolitan Perth.

“I remember while we were up there, the person who took the boat up the river said there’s sufficient water in the lake to support a population of eight million. That’s one of the things that has stuck in my mind when we start talking about water shortages,” Mr Deeks said.

“The pictures on my report I took up there, seeing all this fresh water that’s available, I suppose, and then meeting water restrictions…I feel that the two aren’t really compatible.

“Something needs to be done to bring the two together, and looking at the economics of it I don’t think it’s impossible.”

Mr Deeks believes that the construction of a pipeline from the Kimberley to Perth is a feasible option and says water provision should operate on a more commercial basis.

He said it was a question of working out what the community and industry were prepared to pay for water.

“I’m a businessman and I feel that it’s a question of how one would approach it from a business point of view,” Mr Deeks told WA Business News.

“I would not do something that doesn’t give a return but I believe [the pipeline] would give a very good return in the longer term.”

“I suppose I get a bit frustrated when a business tells us to use less of its product,” he said, referring to the Water Corporation’s advertising campaign to conserve water.

“The fact is that a lot of people are going on about a lack of water – it’s a lack of water where we want it and where we need it.”

Mr Deeks said he aimed to promote public debate with his review.

“I do feel quite strongly about it. I have spoken to people in the community and there’s a great deal of community support for [a pipeline],” he said, adding that he believes the government needs to reassess its water supply strategy.

“I feel that the [government’s] report is not completely independent.

‘‘It has looked at proposals which have been put to it, rather than examining the best way of actually bringing that water from where it exists to where its required.

“It’s a question to me of where, when and how…we’re putting off the inevitable.”