During the 1997-2009 drought that halved the available water supply to this state's capital city & surrounding areas, it was decided to build a reverse-osmosis seawater desalination plant with an 85 km pipeline to connect to the existing water supply infrastructure. Plus on the other sude of the state a windfarm would be built to supply the power needed.
This all happened with significant cost over-runs & much environmental protest. The plant can make 150 gigalitres of water annually, boosting the city's supply by a 25% factor. It was completed in 2012 and has sat idle for four years. The government directed the company to supply 50 gigalitres by Jume 2017 so they planned on firing it up last month & start production at the end of this month.
Didn't quite work that way. A big circuit breaker blew out when it was activated. Spare breakers are available (one would certainly hope so!) but until the investigation into why it blew are finished, the new breaker won't be fitted. Production has been delayed by at least 6 weeks.
In two weeks our Men's Shed group will be doing a coach tour of the desalination plant, followed by lunch at a social club and a visit to a Vietnam Veterans museum on the way back. There might even be time to visit a chocolate factory nearby.