Colleagues Ari Michelsen (who is in Texas) and Bruce Hooper (who really is Down Under) forwarded this editorial from The Australian. It deals with the upcoming national election (Julia Gillard is the current PM and Tony Abbott is the challenger) and the importance of water issues.
Could this be the shape of things to come in the USA?
Long-term thinking is needed to cope with drought
In the driest inhabited continent on earth, water supply should be a priority for political leaders - not only when droughts focus public attention on the issue, but when rainfall is plentiful. Three years ago, as major cities faced Armageddon water scenarios, with Brisbane's dam levels falling to 16 per cent, for example, public discussion centred on the need for new dams, for water to be priced realistically and for maximum efficiency in its use. In this election campaign, the issue has received scant attention, unfortunately. But however fast both sides of politics try to race each other to the bottom on population policy, the needs of a growing nation, as well as the next big drought, will inevitably force a rethink about water infrastructure and policy.
Both Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott have promised to buy water for the nation's largest river system, the Murray-Darling. On Monday, the Prime Minister released an open-ended water buyback scheme. She said the government had used $1.4 billion of $3.1bn in the forward estimates, and the remainder was available. Beyond that, she said, funding would be provided "as necessary", and if re-elected she would accept the Murray-Darling Basin Authority's plan. The success of that strategy, however, is predicated on sufficient water and willing sellers being available along the system for the government to buy. And such buybacks could cost taxpayers at least $1bn more than has so far been allocated.
The Opposition Leader has committed to a more limited buyback scheme, and other measures. Mr Abbott would buy 50 billion litres of water for $20 million on the short-term market to give the Lower Lakes and Coorong wetlands their biggest injection of water for a decade. And the Coalition would spend $300 million fixing farm irrigation systems.
Intelligent water management must be encouraged along the entire Murray-Darling system, and authorities and farmers might look for inspiration to Israel, where an arid climate, limited rain and the narrow Jordan waterway have forced farmers to innovate, pioneering modern drip irrigation 35 years ago to target crops as precisely as possible. Increasingly, the best systems in Australia are computer-controlled and highly scientific too, with the Mallee Catchment Management Authority's report for last financial year showing a widespread move away from wasteful furrow or flood irrigation methods to more efficient drip-feed methods. And Australia is now exporting such technology to China.
In dryer areas, farmers should be encouraged to switch to crops suited to a dry climate. And while some in the National Party would disagree, it is vital that drought assistance, an issue federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke is doing well to reform, does not continue to subsidise unviable farms for years.
Sensibly, Mr Abbott would invest $500m to move towards new dams, a pledge that serves as a reminder that much harder decisions will be required than either leader has broached so far. Since 2006, governments have invested $13bn in water resources across Australia, but no new dams have been built. As the controversial dumping of the Traveston Crossing dam in Queensland showed, the longer such projects are postponed, the harder they become to achieve. Sydney has not had a new dam for decades, and Melbourne, where residents are still putting up with years of water restrictions, has added more than a million people since the Thomson reservoir was built in 1983.
Given the ravages of drought to which much of our continent is prone, heavy rainfalls, when they occur, must be harnessed. Desalination plants, which have a heavy power usage, produce expensive water. Whatever solutions are adopted will force up retail prices.
While the election campaign has produced little sensible discussion on planning, Australia's rainfall patterns are an excellent reason to encourage development in the north, where rainfall is plentiful and land for dams is readily available around cities such as Mackay and Townsville in Queensland and Coffs Harbour in NSW. Like immigration and urban planning, water policy must be fashioned by the new government with an eye to growth, and be based on recurring weather patterns.
"You might as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb." -- Australian proverb
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