With Ozwater taking place in South Australia in 2025, Inside Water sought the insight of South Australian Deputy Premier and Minister for Water, Susan Close about the challenges facing the state.
South Australia is experiencing one of the driest years on record, and drought is biting hard in parts of our state.
The lack of rain has caused people living off the grid to have to buy water for the first time in years, and the State Government has had to open emergency water supplies throughout the Adelaide Hills and on the Fleurieu Peninsula.
Demand increased so dramatically that water carters couldn’t keep up, requiring the State Government to open standpipes as an emergency supply. With an extra six trucking companies recently registered to cart potable water, the wait times are starting to reduce.
But unlike during the Millennium Drought of 2001-09 and those before it, the vast majority of South Australians have water security thanks to our desalination plant at Port Stanvac, which has been cranked up to near full capacity in recent months.
The desalination plant, and improved flows down the River Murray, mean South Australians living on the water grid no longer have to live with the dread of running out of water. This is also the case for farmers needing to truck in water until the rains come.
This guaranteed supply also means we can add tens of thousands of much-needed new homes to the network.
The extra environmental water, which has now been committed to under the Basin Plan, is a critical element in restoring the Murray-Darling Basin’s long-term health.
Water for the environment provides many benefits, including sustaining wetlands and floodplains, creating habitat for threatened species, flushing salt from the basin, and helping to keep the Murray Mouth open.
At Lake Hawdon North, on the Limestone Coast, the South Australian and Commonwealth governments are investing $13.7 million to install new regulators that will extend the duration of shallow water levels in the lake.
It will create lasting improvements to the local wetlands and support species that use the Coorong South Lagoon, including the sharp-tailed sandpiper, curlew sandpiper, common greenshank, and red-necked stint.
South Australia is also reviewing and updating water allocation plans for the Eyre Peninsula, Lower Limestone Coast, and Mount Lofty Ranges. This important work, led by the state’s Landscape Boards, will ensure the sustainable management of prescribed water resources to balance environmental, social and economic needs.
In the same way access to water can rejuvenate small communities, it can also reinvigorate industries and transform entire regions, even entire states.
The Northern Water project aims to provide a new, climate-independent water source for the Far North, Upper Spencer Gulf and Eastern Eyre Peninsula regions of South Australia.
It would involve building a seawater desalination plant in the Spencer Gulf. The plant would be connected to 600 kilometres of pipeline, which would help unlock vast mineral and energy resources as South Australia heads towards net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
A project of this scale is about so much more than the thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in public and private investment it would generate.
Having a new water supply for this part of South Australia would reduce our reliance on the River Murray and the Great Artesian Basin and ease pressure on groundwater resources.
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