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.


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 construction pictures


The project will be commissioned in April 2011 (approximately 15 million litres a day), progressing to 50GL capacity by the end August 2011 and full 100GL capacity by the end of December 2012.

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 will be pumped through the pipeline to Happy Valley, where it will be combined with water from the water treatment plant before entering the existing water supply network. The water will not enter the reservoir but will be mixed with already treated water from the plant.

The pipeline has been constructed by respected construction companies McConnell Dowell Constructors Pty Ltd and Built Environs Pty Ltd (a joint venture).

View pipeline route
View pipeline construction pictures
View pipeline revegetation plans Transfer Pipeline - Revegetation Plans


Landscaping
Work is continuing on the development of a landscaping plan for the Lonsdale site – more details will be available soon.


Traffic management
As was indicated in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the project, there are significant 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.