Senator Andrew Bartlett
Monday, July 04, 2005
 
Water Flowing up the Mountain

The recent drought made life more difficult for many people, but did have the benefit of focussing attention on the need for comprehensive and urgent action to address water shortages and the absurdly inefficient way we use water in most parts of Australia. Hopefully the recent widespread rains won't wash away this sense of urgency.

A few weeks ago while Parliament was sitting I was visited in Canberra by the Mayor of Toowoomba, Di Thorley. I have met her a few times over recent years. She seems to be the personification of an open, no nonsense straight talking local government person who will work with anybody if it helps her community.

Toowoomba is a cool and picturesque town of about 100 000 people (and growing) about 100 kilometres inland from Brisbane, perched on top of the Great Diving Range. It has a reputation as a highly conservative place, although like many such places, there is evidence to disprove the stereotype if you wish to look for it. I have a soft spot for it, as I used to drive up there many times in the 1980s to play gigs at one of the local pubs. It's also the home town of my favourite Labor MP, Claire Moore, and the place where one of the friends I miss most from the past disappeared into some years ago.

The Mayor was in Canberra trying to get federal support and funding for a water re-use project. This sounds like, and is, an eminently sensible thing. However, if you change "water re-use project" to "turning sewage back into drinking water", the public reaction is rather different.

It is understandable on an emotional level why people feel uneasy and uncertain about drinking treated waste water. However, it is well-established that this can be done safely. It is an obvious example where political and community leaders have to show some leadership and simply confront the public fears, rather than give in to them.

It is simply ridiculous that we are considering the massive financial and environmental expense of building more dams in South-east Queensland when we have done so little to develop the infrastructure to reuse the water we consume with such profligacy. More also needs to be done to reduce water consumption and waste, as well as measures like wider use of rainwater tanks (which are compulsory in all new buildings in Toowoomba), but water reuse is virtually untapped.

If a few cities like Toowoomba can be assisted in leading the way, it should open the floodgates for other cities and towns to take the same step. The Qld Governments’ Regional Plan for South-East Queensland was released last week after a lot of consultation and to much fanfare, yet whilst it sets some reasonable goals for reducing water consumption, it is very light on in committing to some of the major infrastructure developments that are needed to really move forward on water reuse. Jennifer Marohasy outlines some of her difficulties in getting meaningful detail on this plan.

Today’s Sydney Morning Herald also has some good pieces on reusing water. While they are talking mainly about reuse for industrial and landscape purposes rather than for drinking water, they reinforce the simple fact that state (and federal) governments are falling well short of what should be being done. This piece by Wendy Frew shows some of the things local Councils in Sydney are trying to do, despite inaction from the Carr government, and this piece by Federal Liberal MP Malcolm Turnbull puts the case for recycling urban water.

Agriculture is still the biggest single consumer of water, but it is hard for urban dwellers to seriously push for better water usage practices in mining and pastoral activities if we do so little to stop wastage and better use water in the cities. I strongly support the Toowoomba City Council’s Water Futures project. Its total cost is projected to be a bit under $70 million and it will need financial support from both the federal and State governments to go ahead.

The Democrats initiated a major Senate Inquiry into urban water management which reported at the end of 2002. It is one of many reports into major issues that the federal Government has ignored, with no response over 30 months later. I hope they pay more attention to the Toowoomba Council's request for assistance for this project.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Monday, July 04, 2005 Permalink
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