“There’s a huge demand for [water] in Australia and there’s a huge supply up here which is untapped,” he said.
Despite the huge construction costs, Mr Ariel believes it would be cheaper than desalination plants and water recycling.
“The advantage that this project has is the sheer volumes of water available,” he said.
“It’s available all year round. It doesn’t require expensive dams.”
Mr Ariel says the pipeline could provide six gigalitres a day to be used for consumption, irrigation or pumped into the Murray-Darling river system.
He says he is confident he would be able to reach agreements with the thousands of PNG landowners who would be affected by the pipeline.
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