Adelaide to get desalination plant

South Australia will get a desalination plant, state premier Mike Rann said today.

The location and exact cost of the proposed 50 gigaliter plant for Adelaide won't be sorted out until November, but he said it's likely to have a price tag in excess of $1.2 billion.

The state cabinet is expected to receive the final report in November of a working group set up earlier this year to investigate desalination.

A 45 gigaliter desalination plant now operating in Perth cost just under $332.3 million, but Rann said costs have gone up.

The project is one of many under consideration as part of the South Australian government's 20 year blueprint for a sustainable water supply in the state, called Water Proofing Adelaide.

"In fact South Australia will eventually have two desalination plants, one to supply water to the Roxby Downs Olympic Dam expansion, the second to be an insurance policy for the city of Adelaide," he said.

The Roxby Downs plant he envisions would service the Olympic Dam mine.

Rann said the Adelaide plant would probably take five years to build. The contractor for the project has not been announced.

The premier also promised an $706.1 million expansion of the Mt Bold reservoir.

"My preference, this government's preference, is for both projects to go ahead, so my view is that a desalination plant for Adelaide is inevitable," said Rann.

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