The supply of water to Perth by supertanker ship is the most viable, practical and cost effective option to solve Perth's water supply crisis. A pipeline will be constructed from the Ord River to an offshore loading facility north from the Cambridge Gulf. Two 1 million tonne (ie 1 kilolitre/m3/cubic metre) purpose built aqua tankers (each can carry in one load enough water for 6,400 people for 1 year) would shuttle the water down to Perth. Upon arrival at Perth the water would be piped ashore and into the Perth IWWS (Integrated Water Supply System). Each ship would take just over two weeks to complete a return voyage and the whole operation would transport 50 million m3 of water per year. This very pure water could then be blended with water that is otherwise slightly too salty to be used such as up to 45 million m3 from the Wellington Dam. A total of 95 million m3 could then be fed into the IWSS system.
95 million m3 per annum is the appropriate amount of water to start supplying to Perth. The amount is made up of the following:
- 44 million m3 per year from restricted demand (refer Water Corporation, page 19)
- 24 million m3 per year reduction in groundwater draw from Perth's overdrawn Jandakot and Gnangara mounds which equates to 17 % of current abstractions
- 27 million m3 per year to allow for 10 % growth in unrestricted demand from the current booming population growth
Other proposals to supply less than this are inadequate. Proposals to supply significantly more than this are impractical and would impose a large financial burden on the State.
The water could also be provided to other coastal locations in Western Australia.
Once the project is up and running the amount of water delivered can be varied to suit needs either by introducing more ships or fine tuning the amount of water required by speeding up or slowing down the ships that are already operating. Speeding up the ships enables more water to be transported at greater fuel costs per cubic metre, however it results in a drop of capital and operating costs per cubic metre. Slowing down the ships reduces the amount of water to be transported at a lesser fuel cost per cubic metre however it increases the capital and operating costs per cubic metre. The net effect is that the amount of water can be delivered to suit changing needs with the unit cost per cubic metre of water not altering significantly. This contrasts with other major water supply options which cannot provide water at anywhere near their optimum cost over varying levels of demand. They require changes in demand to be predictable and lumpy, beyond what happens in reality.
This project would deliver a significantly greater quantity of water at a significantly reduced dollar and environmental cost to the existing seawater desalination plant at Kwinana.
Our costings during the 1990's were around $ 2 per kilolitre depending on the volume and the scale of the operation. Some costs have increased, however by blending with slightly too salty water such as that from Wellington Dam we are confident that fresh market research will confirm that the cost will be below $ 2.
The Water Corporation's capacity to pay for this plan would come from:
- $ 473 million per year profit (2006 result, Water For Life, p67)
- $ 40.9 million per year from restricted demand..ie 44.2 million m3(p,19) @ say $ 0.93 m3
Otherwise restricted demand would fund much of the project with relatively little draw from the Corporation's profit required. There would be no need to draw on any Treasury funding.
This proposal unlike desalination, is resident friendly, the
ships will deliver their cargo to floating storage vessels anchored 15
km's offshore and will not be visible to someone standing on the shoreline.
There will be no noise, no pollution and no powerlines. 
At a later stage marketing will recommence to sell water from the Ord to other parts of the world in need of fresh water.
