The South Australian Government and SA Water are committed to providing reliable drinking water supplies for the future.

As part of the State's Water for Good plan to secure water for the future, the Government is building a seawater desalination plant at Lonsdale, south of Adelaide, to ensure drinking water is available even in times of drought.

The total project cost is $1.83 billion and the plant will deliver up to 100 billion litres of water each year (100GL) - about half of Adelaide’s annual water supply.

Customers now receiving water
In October 2011 customers served by the Happy Valley distribution network started to receive a mixture of desalinated water and Happy Valley Water Treatment Plant water.

No customer is receiving pure desalinated water and water is being delivered from the first 50GL plant. Construction on the second 50GL plant continues and we are on track to meet overall completion by the end of December 2012.

Customers in the north of Adelaide will receive desalinated water from the North South Interconnection System Project scheduled for completion in late 2012.

To find out more:
Read 10 things customers should know about our desalinated water
Watch videos of our staff talking about the project

The project construction
AdelaideAqua (consortium of four companies with extensive world-wide desalination experience and strong environmental credentials) have been contracted to design, build, operate and maintain the plant for 20 years, and construction is well underway.

View the concept drawing
View our construction pictures
Read the Adelaide Desalination Project brochure

The procurement process and documentation for the project
The procurement process summarises the principal procurement and documentation features of the Adelaide Desalination Project.

Transfer pipeline
An important part of the Adelaide Desalination Project is the transfer pipeline system to deliver water from Port Stanvac to the Happy Valley water treatment supply. Desalinated water is pumped through the pipeline to Happy Valley, where it is combined with water from the water treatment plant before entering the existing water supply network.

The pipeline was constructed by McConnell Dowell Constructors Pty Ltd and Built Environs Pty Ltd (a joint venture).

View pipeline route


Traffic management
As was indicated in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the project, there are increases to traffic movement to and from the Lonsdale site by employees as well as through the supply and delivery of construction materials.

More information about traffic controls, view the Traffic Management fact sheet.