Use it or lose it?
Sunday. 28 January 2007
Water – use it before you lose it.
The NSW Government is ignoring community sentiment in rejecting recycling and further water restrictions and marching headlong towards desalination, according to NSW Upper House Greens MP Ian Cohen.
“Morris Iemma has said that he won’t introduce recycled effluent into Sydney’s water supply until there is community support for it. It’s a pity his government didn’t insist on a similar level of public acceptance before making plans for an unpopular, expensive and environmentally disastrous desalination plant,” said Mr Cohen.
“The Greens believe that capture and reuse are the key to guaranteeing Sydney’s water needs. The Iemma government and Sydney Water are both stuck in a 1980’s out of sight out of mind mentality. The continued one off use of this scarce resource is unsustainable and will be a future social and environmental disaster.
“I don’t believe the community is opposed to drinking recycled water. A poll in the Daily Telegraph this weekend found 57% were prepared to drink it. Another poll by ABC radio found that less than 20% of respondents were opposed to further water restrictions for Sydney. Whilst these are admittedly only straw polls, they certainly don’t suggest that there is widespread opposition to either option.
“The government also continues to make it difficult for people to install water tanks. If the $1.3 billion earmarked for desalination was instead directed at water tank installation it would fit out two thirds of Sydney’s homes without homeowners having to spend a cent. It would also effectively move the catchment to the coast, which is where the majority of Sydney’s rain falls.
“Water tanks would save more water than desalination for the same money. This could be happening much sooner than the two and a half years it will take for a desalination plant to become operational.
“The NSW Government would also be better off spending $1.4 million on advertising that educates people on the benefits of drinking recycled water rather than using it to promote a desalination plant that will stand as a monument to this government’s incompetence on water issues.
“Sydney currently regurgitates 450 billion litres of effluent into the ocean each year. How ridiculous to spend $1.3 billion of taxpayer’s dollars on a greenhouse generating desalination plant merely to regain something we shouldn’t have thrown away in the first place,” concluded Mr Cohen
