A dam at any cost!
Following the independent arbiter, Sir Lawrence Street’s report recommending the release of ‘document No.9’ as it was in the public interest, Hunter Water Corp. has withdrawn its claim of privilege, making the memo publicly available. The document exposes the complete lack of planning and analysis before the 13 November 2006 announcement of Tillegra Dam. One of 4 water infrastructure ideas worthy of consideration it was put to the Iemma government with a cost that had “not been robustly quantified” but was “likely to be in the order of $250 million”. Further, the original DA submitted by HWC to the Department of Planning in November 2007 had 200 construction jobs and 5 permanent jobs. Now it said to cost $477M and create 1850 jobs??? The final design might be approved but hasn’t yet been costed by dam building contractors and nearly all large scale civil engineering projects, especially dams blowout in construction costs. Even Water Minister Costa is eager to water down costs.
The real cost of this dam may well be the political future of those forging ahead with an attitude of ‘a dam at any cost’!