Moving Water from the Kimberley
For many years there has been community interest in developing water resources in the far north of the State for public water supply in Perth. Water resources in the Kimberley are abundant and currently there is a significant amount of water from both the Ord and Fitzroy Rivers flowing to the ocean.
These resources have not been developed to date due to access to adequate and cheaper surface water, groundwater and more recently desalinated seawater closer to Perth. The distance to transport water from the Ord River Dam (over 3,500 kilometres) is extremely high, six times the length of the Perth – Kalgoorlie pipeline.
In 2004, the State Government appointed an independent panel to evaluate the technical and financial viability of transporting water from the Kimberley region to service inland communities and Perth. The comprehensive report was released in 2006.
Four options were explored in detail to source 200 gigalitres of water a year:
- a pipeline – from Fitzroy River to Perth;
- a canal – from Fitzroy River to Perth;
- towed water bags from the Ord Dam to Perth; and
- a super-tanker from the Ord Dam to Perth.
The Panel concluded that moving water from the Kimberley in these quantities would have significant social and environmental impacts. In addition, energy consumption for all options was extremely high. The lowest cost option, transport via water tankers, produces 3 times as much greenhouse gases as seawater desalination.
Importantly, the water has significant cultural value to Indigenous people and has significant recreational and tourist value. The pipeline and canal would both require damming the Fitzroy River, which would have significant impacts on the local environment.
All options are very costly. The unit cost of the cheapest option, ocean transport by super- tankers is $6.70 per kilolitre, more than 2.5 times higher than the cost of desalination. The most expensive option is the canal option, which has an estimated unit cost of $20.50 per kilolitre.
These resources have been partially developed by the Ord River irrigation scheme which supports irrigated horticulture in Kununurra. Currently there is a State and Federal Government taskforce, which is further examining the development of these resources for local use.
Moving water from the North is not a water supply option currently being considered by the Water Corporation.