A fleet of supertankers shipping in hundreds of millions of litres of water every week could be the solution to the drought threatening Australia's cities.
Ambitious plans are being developed to ship desperately needed water to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne from Tasmania, New Zealand or Papua New Guinea.
Proponents say it would cost a fraction of new dams, desalination plants or the pipeline between north Queensland and Brisbane currently being considered.
Solar Sailor, a company chaired by former prime minister Bob Hawke, is already in talks with the Tasmanian Government about buying fresh water from two sites near the coast in the north and west of the island – areas often soaked with rain. Much of it now runs off into the sea. It is also in discussions with a firm which holds the right to water supplies in New Zealand.
The company is also investing tens of millions of dollars into developing electric-hybrid "Aquatankers" powered by solar wings which harvest energy from both sun and wind.
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