weak as water

I went back to my school years for this topic and hope my memory of  The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is correct.

‘Water, water everywhere, and all the boards did shrink. Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink’.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote that more than 200 years ago and I guess it mocks us today.

As the drought continues and water emergency measures are taken there are as many questions as there are answers.

There’s the new temporary pool being built inside the Rod Laver Arena and it will take six million litres of fresh water.  Why we need another pool so soon after the Commonwealth Games is another expensive issue.

The Herald Sun trumpeted  yesterday Pool to the Rescue. Millions of litres of that water will be used  to save historic trees and fill the lake at the Royal Botanic Garden. As it turns out most will go in the lake. A comparative trickle will get to the trees.

And then there’s the Burnley Tunnel. For ages they pumped millions of litres of drinking water into the surrounds to keep it stable. After an uproar they agreed to build a plant to use only recycled water. I was assured that is now the case. Not so, say insiders. Some  drinking water is still being used. How much?

Then there is Albert Park Lake and the Grand Prix. Water Minister John Thwaites assured me on air this week that fresh water would not be used to beautify the lake as has happened in previous years. It will all come from stormwater drains.

So how does that gel with Grand Prix chief executive Tim Bamford’s comment that the corporation has ‘ reduced it’s reliance on drinking water by more than 70 per cent’? Does that mean nearly 30% is still coming from drinking water?

And our roadworks. How come tankers that are on dust patrol hosing down the new roadworks are reportedly filling up at fire hydrants?

Has anything changed in recent weeks in Government departments – among the biggest Water Wallies in Victoria?  Have the Treasury Department and the Premier’s Department got their meters fixed yet so we can see just how much more water they are using than a year ago?

How come out west they can build a desalination plant that is providing 17% of all Perth’s water needs for $400 million and yet a plant in Victoria we’re told would cost one billion dollars?

The only thing wet in all this is the ducking and weaving of  the Government and industry.

Friday, January 19, 2007

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2007