No Tillegra Dam Group

The Australian Academy of Science High Flyers Think Tank 2006 Report,Innovative technical solutions for water management in Australia is an important report to government that is timely, well received and should be instrumental in influencing policy development.

“The Think Tank participants suggested that Australia should gradually abandon the more expensive, vulnerable and non-sustainable approaches to waste treatment in favour of technological and social innovations that are based on relatively simple and highly sustainable concepts. With some careful choices, there is much to be gained from greater integration of the water supply, stormwater, and wastewater components of the urban water cycle.

Australians place a high value on the natural landscape, and scientific investigations into the principles of natural resource management indicate that preventative action for challenges like salinity can be far less costly than repairing a system left to degrade. For example, dredging rivers clogged with silt that have not been allowed to flush during high flow events can be a very expensive and substantial task.”

Some key points from the report:

• Leakages/evaporation – There are huge losses in metropolitan water supply systems.
  Huge potential for utilising stormwater in urban settings.
  Use of tanks for grey water – benefits for individual re-use, information.
  Use water more locally – capture water rainwater tanks onsite. Local versus system approach to the system – changes the whole paradigm. equity.
  All new developments should include dual pipes to use recycled water for garden watering and toilet flushing, and open space irrigation in the development  (This is mandated in California for all new developments – since 2000.  They have to demonstrate they will be water self-sufficient and will look after their own waste water.)
  Communities should be involved in the early identification of problem and solution stage of a change in water management. Superficial consultation processes are not trusted.
  Role of markets in the water industry is set to increase. This needs to be coupled with regulation, information. Water is both a public and private good, water markets are artificial markets that are regulated with a cap or prescription to create artificial scarcity.
  Pumping costs high.
  Desalination using wind energy can be cheaper than River Murray water – see example of Roxby Downs.
  Technologies are constantly changing, becoming cheaper and improving – frequently re-evaluate – do not close the door on options – for instance, desalination costs dropping.
  Australia has many coastal cities and therefore the increased  use of seawater is an option.
  Ecosystems that are poorly understood are more likely to be neglected than those that are better studied. Expertise is particularly lacking in estuarine biology and there is very poor data available on the effects of shifting salinity and flow changes on fisheries and aquatic biota in many of these systems. More information is required to determine minimum requirements (in terms of freshwater volumes, frequency, duration, timing, rates of change relative to saltwater ratios etc) so that the regime that is required to maintain healthy ecosystems and fisheries at a low level of risk can be pinpointed and managed.