SA Water has told a parliamentary inquiry there is no guarantee Adelaide’s desalination plant will be producing water by August.
The plant was originally expected to produce its first drinking water in December last year, but the date was pushed back twice.
The building consortium, headed by AdelaideAqua, says a death at the site and bad weather have been responsible for the delays.
SA Water’s desalination plant director, Milind Kumar, says the plant is currently on track to begin production in August.
However, he cannot rule out further changes to the deadline.
“All of the programs they’ve given to us have a sufficient level of detail for AdelaideAqua to attempt… to achieve that date. Now if there is a situation that we’re not aware of, an unforeseen situation may happen, we don’t know,” he said.
SA Water also told the inquiry it has not placed pressure on the builders of the plant to meet the deadlines.
But Mr Kumar says SA Water is reserving the right to apply contractual penalties on AdelaideAqua.
