THE $2 billion desalination plant being proposed by the State Government to solve Sydney's water crisis could be operated by a private company which would sell the water back to consumers.
The plant, the possible location of which is being kept a secret, would be the size of a "Bunning's Warehouse" Utilities Minister Frank Sartor yesterday said.
Although a final plan has not been agreed upon, one possible location being talked about within Government circles was Malabar in the Premier's seat of Maroubra.
Sydney Water owns significant land there, operating a deep ocean outfalls and sewage treatment plant.
A spokeswoman for Mr Sartor said the plant was likely to be constructed by the private sector but would remain under public ownership.
However, it was possible it could be operated by the private sector, which would need to make a profit on providing the service of water.
The plan for the plant, revealed yesterday by The Daily Telegraph, is due to go to cabinet next week.
Fourteen possible sites have been identified for the plant, which could provide up to one third of the city's water -- 500 million litres a day.
However, the Greens and environment groups raised alarm bells about the project, claiming the plant was five times larger than proposals first mooted last year.
As a result, it would produce in the vicinity of 1 million tonnes of greenhouse gasses annually, they claimed.
"A desalination plant producing 100 million litres of water a day would create more greenhouse emissions that 50,000 new cars on the road," Greens MP Ian Cohen said.
"The Government must instead make recycling stormwater and sewage the priority." Mr Sartor said the Government needed to be prepared to build a desalination plant if dam levels dropped from their current 41.2 per cent level of capacity to 30 per cent.
"We are preparing ourselves to build it, and if we need to build it we will find the funds to build it," Mr Sartor said yesterday.
"[Desalination] starts to get to the more expensive end of the range but we can't afford not to do it if the drought continues.
"We've got to secure our water supplies against the possibility of a long-term shift in rainfall patterns." Mr Sartor said the plant would cost between $400 million and $2 billion.Daily Telegraph
