Costly Australian desalination plant remains unused

The yet-to-be used Victorian desalination plant will cost 460 million U.S. dollars this year even though it won't produce a drop of water, the Victorian Government confirmed on Tuesday.

With Melbourne's dam levels at 75 percent full, almost three times that of the lowest levels experienced in 2009, the three- billion U.S. dollar plant will spend a third year idle.

A spokeswoman for Water Minister Lisa Neville confirmed no water order would be made in 2015 from the plant located on the Bass Coast, 132 kilometers south-east of Melbourne.

"We are committed to ensuring all Victorians have a secure water supply, and will continue to take advice from our water authorities," the spokeswoman told Fairfax Media.

After the Labor government was elected in November, Neville said Labor was open to using the plant if water supplies hit critical levels and described it as an important insurance policy.

At current usage rates, no rain could fall into the catchments for a year and a half before Melbourne reached the 2009 dam levels of 25 percent.

The desalination plant, capable of supplying 33 percent of Melbourne's water supply, was approved for development in 2007 by the Bracks Labor government when water levels dipped to 28 percent at the height of a drought.

But since the decade-long 'big dry' ended in 2010, the plant that was completed in 2012 has remained in standby mode.

Former Water Minister, Peter Walsh, described the plant as a " white elephant" and claimed it was his personal ambition to never order water from the plant.

The Victorian government will pay 460 million U.S. dollars this financial year for "annual service payments" for the plant that will cost the state's taxpayers 13.5 billion U.S. dollars over 27 years. Endi