Episode: WA Garden Gurus Special - Summer Gardens
Presenter: Adrian Beattie (intro by Trevor Cochrane)

With over 70% of the Earths surface covered in water you would think that we would have an endless supply. The trouble is, only two percent of it is fresh water. Now, with 90% of all Australians living on the coast you would think we would find a way to turn salt water, into fresh water.

The worlds latest desalination plant is about to be commissioned and it is right here in Perth.

Adrian Beattie talks to Gary Crisp, Principal Engineer of the Desalination Plant.

So Gary, how did you get into all of this?

From the age of 7 I always wanted to be a water engineer and I even had dams in my sandpit at home. I think dams are the old fashioned way of engineering and desalination is going to take over, especially in semi arid countries like Spain, Australia and the east coast of the United States.

Can you tell us how it works?

Essentially we take in 100% seawater and convert 40% of that into beautiful drinking water and the other 60% goes back to the ocean with all the salt we originally took out the sea. The salt that goes back into the ocean is only about 1 and ? of a teaspoon in a glass and we have taken out one teaspoon in a glass.

Can you show me how it works?

I will take you up the road to our small desalination plant in Kwinana and we will have a look and I will take you through the process.

Kwinana Desalination Plant:

The treated salty water comes out of the pre-treatment process, passes through to a high pressure pump which then forces the salty water through the reverse osmosis membranes. From one end the concentrated salty water comes out and from the other end you get ultra pure water that is almost too pure to drink.

Inside every one of the tubes, in which the reverse osmosis takes place, are seven huge filters. The salt water is sent through at high pressure and passes through the membrane and then the pure water comes out through the central core and is sent to a tank outside.

The water in the outside tanks is ultra pure like what you would use in your iron at home, but before you drink it you should add minerals.

For more information about the desalination plant, click on the link below or visit the Water Corporation Website.

http://www.watercorporation.com.au/D/desalination.cfm