> Are those projects unnecessary?
joshuaheard's hypothetical interstate water transport project? Yes, unnecessary.
There are other lower-cost solutions. It'll be cheaper to provide free Earthships / passive homes / etc. to everyone in the desert southwest and ban outdoor watering. It'll be cheaper to build a New Cleveland and relocate the entire population of AZ to Ohio.
If you want to live in the desert, stop pretending you live in the English countryside. Every well sucking up irreplaceable water is a temporary facade against reality, and that facade is now crumbling.
> to resolve the water supply issues in countries such as Australia for example
That's to provide for coastal cities, not to provide water to Alice Springs.
> perhaps more well-off communities could encourage the developments in the water technology
Don't you understand? They did. The story mentions wells drilled down nine hundred feet to find water, and transporting water from different watersheds. That's all based on improved methods for drilling, pumping, and transporting.
Before about 80 years ago, we didn't have pumps able to drain the Ogallala. Now parts of that aquifer are 300 feet lower. Improve the technology? Lower the level. Until it's bone dry. And then what?
Sometimes the only way to win is to play a different game.