Water waste of our dam money
There isn’t a water problem – only the perception of a water problem, which has been used to justify poor policy decisions which will last for at least 30 years. 
Neither state nor federal ministers have deigned to look seriously at these options. They have been led by the nose by corporate rent seekers who can see private fortunes to be made out of water trading under the umbrella of high prices and by market fundamentalists whose mindset and shonky economics have been major contributors to the current global financial crisis. In recent articles in The Age newspaper the expense and wisdom of large infrastructure projects and the lack of commitment to recycling and water harvesting are being questioned.
In the words of John Morgan, the managing director of Melbourne Water from 1995 to 1998, water recycling is the answer for Melbourne’s water security – not desal plants or building more dams. Recycling is cost effective, safe and environmentally correct (Water waste of our dam money, Kenneth Davidson, The Age, November 17, 2008). Appointed by Jeff Kennett, John Morgan managed to reduce water prices to users whilst increasing the dividend to the Victorian government. Interestingly, Melbourne’s current water storage is at 33.3% of capacity, Sydney is at 64.5% and the Hunter region is at 96%.
Let’s not kid ourselves, water recycling is happening now in ways many water rate payers don’t understand. Morgan pointed out that the Queensland Government had a similar water supply problem to Victoria but the failure of the recycling referendum in Toowoomba hadn’t stopped Queensland from undertaking recycling in the south-east of the state. Melbournians in the north of the city have been drinking recycled water for 28 years from the Sugarloaf Reservoir, which is partly supplied from the middle Yarra on the sound assumption that what you don’t know won’t hurt you (Why is water recycling being overlooked? Kenneth Davidson, The Age, November 20, 2008). This also applies here in the Hunter, as 80% of the supply to the Lower Hunter region comes from the Williams River (via Chichester Dam pipeline and diversions to Grahamstown Reservoir via Ballickera Canal) and Dungog’s treated sewerage is sprayed on land next to the river, and cattle and horses directly accessing the river add their own effluent. Obviously the water quality is monitored and treated at appropriate points in the system. Effectively the water is recycled – what you don’t know won’t hurt you.
Further, taxpayers would save more than $600 million if every new house and apartment block in Victoria was built with a rainwater tank, a State Government-commissioned study has found. But the economic study found that conserving water was only a small bonus of widespread rainwater tanks. The biggest benefit would be in saving the Government millions of dollars in managing storm water (Rainwater tanks could save public $600m, Melissa Fyfe, The Age, August 10, 2008).
So why do we need a big, costly, environmentally damaging and unsafe dam at Tillegra?