<p>In one of the country’s biggest infrastructure projects in its history, Australia’s five largest cities are spending $13.2 billion on desalination plants capable of sucking millions of gallons of seawater from the surrounding oceans every day, removing the salt and yielding potable <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/world/asia/11water.html?_r=2&amp;ref=water" title="link to article">water</a>. (Source: The New York Times)</p>