Zoe Kenny
Sydney is facing a water crisis. One of the worst droughts in Australia's history has left the Warragamba Dam, which provides Sydney with 80% of its water needs, only 43.1% full. This is far below the 60% mark which triggered mandatory water restrictions in 2003. The level will need to rise above 70% before restrictions are abandoned.
Speaking on ABC TV's Lateline program on June 10, Professor Tim Flannery, an environmental scientist and director of the South Australian Museum, predicted that if the drought continues, Sydney's dams could be dry within two years.
Flannery said that "the worst-case scenario for Sydney is that the climate that's existed for the last seven years continues for another two years. In that case, Sydney will be facing extreme difficulties with water, and of course, large cities are the most vulnerable structures to water deficit because you've got 4 million people there who need water just for everyday survival".
He noted that "Sydney's ground water supplies are only 13 gigalitres, which is about 10 days' worth of supply. So there are not many options for Sydney and, of course, without water you can't make power, you can't wash, you can't clean your food, you can't have industry."
Australia, an extremely dry continent, regularly suffers droughts. Global climate is amplifying this problem. 2005 was the hottest year on record, with the average global temperature almost 1oC higher than the 30-year average (based on weather readings between 1950 and 1980).
The NSW government's solution to averting a disaster is to build a massive desalination plant in the southern Sydney suburb of Kurnell.
A desalination plant uses a process of reverse osmosis. Sea water is pushed through a fine mesh to filter out the salt, thus producing fresh water. The plant would be capable of producing 500 million litres of fresh water per day during droughts. This would provide 1.4 million people — a third of Sydney's population — with their water requirements. During non-drought periods the plant would produce 125 million litres of water per day to provide 350,000 people with fresh water.
The deadline for submissions on the proposed plant to the government-run Sydney Water Corporation closed on February 3, when the environmental impact assessment was also taken off the corporation's website. Sydney Water is currently examining submissions from construction consortiums tendering for the contract to build the plant.
The proposed plant has been widely criticised by environmentalists and Kurnell residents. Three large community consultation meetings have been held; the most recent being a January 19 Sutherland Shire meeting attended by 160 people, where vote in support of the proposed plant was defeated 159 to 1.
Even Sydney Water has in the past criticised desalination. Its former head, Greg Robinson, had deemed desalination unworkable, a judgement that the Drought Expert Panel concurred with. Even former NSW premier Bob Carr, who announced the project, had previously called the water produced by desalination plants "bottled electricity".
Opponents argue that the project is environmentally and financially unsound, and some have pointed to other water options such as water-recycling and harvesting rain water as better options.
A desalination plant would require massive amounts of electric power, using 900 gigawatt hours of electricity each year. This would result in an extra million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. This is equivalent to putting another 250,000 new cars on the road or the energy usage of 120,000 households.
In order to offset these problems, the government is proposing to build a gas-fired power station, which will provide the energy required and which it claims will reduce CO2 emissions by half. However, this would still be a huge amount of extra pollution being pumped into the atmosphere.
Given that CO2 emissions are one of the main contributing factors to global warming, which is in turn contributing to the water crisis, it is short-sighted of the government to propose a "solution" that will actually exacerbate the problem. The new gas-fuelled power station will also add to the expense of the project, already estimated to cost $1.3 billion.
The high cost of the desalination plant is also a concern, as it is likely that water rates will rise by more than $50 a year. On the other hand, costing done by Sydney Water reveals that a water recycling plant would cost about half that of a desalination plant, as well as using less than a third of the energy.
Many environmentalists argue that there is enough water available to supply Sydney if it was used in the right way. Water usage could be reduced by encouraging and subsidising water efficiency measures for industrial, agricultural and residential use, such as using "grey water" (from showers, washing machines, etc.) for household gardens.
Other measures proposed include subsidising the installment of household water tanks to catch the vast amount of water that does not get channelled into Sydney's dams and simply runs into the ocean.
An opinion poll conducted by Clean Up Australia last year also showed that 67.4% of people are prepared to use treated water from sewage plants.
However, planning minister Craig Knowles has stated that the plan for a desalination plant was "beyond public debate", as well as classifying the plant as "critical infrastructure" in order to bypass lengthy environmental impact assessments and other approval processes.
Whoever ends up owning the desalination plant will have gained a virtual monopoly on supplies of increasingly scare fresh water and will be able to inflate water prices. Unfortunately, some environmentalists have been adding weight to the idea that Sydney residents waste water because it doesn't cost enough and have been calling for rates to increase. Any attempt to increase the price of water will only serve to further disadvantage ordinary working people.
From Green Left Weekly, February 8, 2006.
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