Senator Steve Fielding - Leader of Family First
Water security
Posted by Senator Steve Fielding on July 28 2009 | 16 Comments
We’re in the middle of winter at the moment so our current water shortage is not at the forefront of our minds.
However, weather forecasters say we could be in for another hot summer. This coupled with the fact that Victoria’s water storages are only 27 percent full says to me more needs to be done to protect this vital resource.
Plans have been put in place to drought-proof the Murray Darling Basin with the Rudd Government buying up water licences.
But this is currently doing very little to solve the dire situation we’re in with a very real water shortage.
Despite still being a few years away, Victoria’s desalination plant will go a long way to help relieve the pressure off Melbourne’s water supplies.
But in the long run it probably won’t be enough. I’m a bit of a dreamer and think Australia needs one gigantic scheme to address the big dry across the country.
I believe we need to think big and consider something even larger than the snowy hydro scheme.
No doubt I’ll probably be laughed at no matter what I think up, but I believe it is something we as a nation need to seriously think about.
Leave a comment and let me know what you feel can be done to help our great country solve its big thirst.
hi every body thanks for informing about the security of water. It is really become a crucial issue.
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Comment by shazlovely on 17 March 2010 at 04:43:22 PM
OK im not totally sure about this but I do believe from what ive read that the Murray Darling river system was flowing quite well until that Huge damn was built in south eastern QLD And because its blocked the river systems from flowing the way they used to the water now doesnt flow down as far as it used to ..This Huge damn is so many times the size of Sydney Harbour .. I think that needs to be looked into ....It water theft !!!!!
Comment by stu21963 on 11 December 2009 at 01:03:19 PM
As a farmers son and a boilermaker welder I have worked on many buildings in Melbourne.
It always amazes me when I am in the city at night time and whole buildings are lit up as a christmas tree.
with hardly any one inside working.
Just seem to be left on.
No matter what time it is.
Then you see all the cardboard being used and thrown away.
Cardboard means trees cut down and mostly hard wood at that.
These are the lungs of the world.
We then look at this global warming with those things in mind.
I ask is it because the old world Trees which are the lungs of the world the main reason why we have the problem because of the faster pace these trees are being cut down.
We need million ton wood chipping mills like a hole in the head as even if they are new growth areas they are still trees and the bigger they are the more co2 they consume.
Cut down just for cardboard and paper mostly used once and thrown in the bin.
Oh yes we have recycling BUT if it was 100 percent then we would not have to sell wood chips over seas for the countrys to send to us in cardboard boxes.
I have seen packing cases with new wood broken apart then thrown away to the tip.
As no good because of the glues and nails in the wood.
Pallets take up to over 20% of the trees cut down for what Packing and shipping BOXES of new goods.
This has to be changed the cutting down of hard wood Trees and forests of trees.
New or old. Before its to late.
Look at areas and countrys that have cut their trees down.
to nothing but crops now Deserts as soon as a long dry period comes and destroys the fertile soil and is blown away to sand.
Well thats what I think and believe as I have seen it with my own eyes over the past 58 years of life.
From the family of Henry Hopkins of Hobart town Tas1830s who financed Wornabool and Melbourne Victoria from the 1830s to state hood of 1855.
Why the family coat of arms is on Tasmania, NSW,Queensland coats of arms.
Albert Hopkins Shirley.
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Comment by 51googlepm on 04 November 2009 at 07:03:10 PM
The answer is already with us…. and hard to imagine as it is…. it doesnt require some great national iconic feat of engineering (of the type we’re apparantly so fond); all that is needed is to:
1. markedly increase water use efficiency,
2. recycle sewage,
3. harvest stormwater, and
4. in our farmland areas- grow crops appropriate for our climate, not europe and asias!
Desal is not the answer-
1. it uses a huge amount of energy, which requires carbon offset by drawing power from renewable sources, and
2. it is a band aid solution in that it doesnt treat the problem- inefficient water use.
Desal simply adds a small amount of water to the system, it doesnt reuse water that is already there.
Now i can hear the economic argument creeping in i.e. it costs to add infrastructure to distribute recycled water… how many billions does it cost to build desal plants and add to them as water use increases, and wind farms to power them appropriately?!
Comment by Strebor on 20 October 2009 at 06:28:16 PM
That well known and often quoted AGW alarmist, Dr Flannery, said 5 years ago in the West Australian newspaper:
“My hypothesis is Perth will become a ghost metropolis over the next few decades unless governments acknowledge that global warming is a reality.”
Well this winter and spring the heavens opened and our (Perth) dams are just about holding more than at any time this decade. Let it rain on Flannery’s parade.
Comment by John of Cloverdale WA on 22 September 2009 at 11:46:00 PM
aus pop increased by 406100 to 31/12/2008
1112 people / day
at the current rate australia will be smothered in over 100 million people by 2100
Comment by kiwichick on 15 September 2009 at 09:31:34 PM
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/global-warming/study-links-drought-with-rising-emissions-20090815-elpf.html
Now this also shows an increasing high pressure average over the south east coast of Australia due to climate change. Well planting trees can reduce that high pressure average because when the water vapour from the transpiration combine to form clouding, you are essentially removing a gas from the atmosphere which lowers the pressure. It should increase rainfall as well. This has been proven with several little known peer reviewed papers.
Here is just one
http://www.pnas.org/content/106/10/3670.abstract
Comment by Windguy on 22 August 2009 at 10:23:06 AM
we can also reduce evaporation by up to 90%
Comment by kiwichick on 18 August 2009 at 09:56:18 PM
steve
we already have the technology available to provide
as much water as we need
first unit could be online next year
http://www.ceto.com.au
Comment by kiwichick on 18 August 2009 at 09:53:19 PM
http://www.mdba.gov.au/system/files/drought-update-August-2009-pdf
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Comment by 51googlepm on 06 August 2009 at 04:42:23 PM
Where are the visionary leaders of the past when you need them?
Don’t be backward in coming forward Mr Fielding
Comment by CR on 03 August 2009 at 10:06:53 PM
Water is becoming more scarce. The biggest problem is deforestation by far.
Here is my study into it.
http://www.theenvironmentsite.org/forum/climate-change-forum/11601-bigger-contributor-gw-than-carbon-dioxide.html
So planting acres and acres of forests, gums in the already wasted farmlands, then other plants through the gum trees once they have established. If we do that, we can increase our rainfall inland by a large margin. By also speeding up the evaporation rain cycle we can also offset climate change by a two fold approach (absorbing carbon dioxide, and bypassing GHG’s by transporting water vapour into the upper atmosphere more so!)
Comment by Windguy on 31 July 2009 at 07:43:28 PM
There’s no water shortage, Steve, there’s just too many people using it.
We can’t go on stuffing more and more people into cities and not expecting the wells to run dry.
I read where Sydney’s population is expanding at the rate of 1000 people a week.
I was in Sydney a few weeks ago and the high rise housing there looks like the architects probably did their apprenticeships designing battery hen houses.
It’s about time some one came up with the idea of decentralizing. Give a tax break to industries that will move ex-cities. Improve the railways so’s they can get their products to town and get the trucks off the roads.
Railways are cheaper to build than roads and are more efficient at moving people and freight.
Less pollution too.
Some third world countries have better railways than we have.
Some time ago, within the past couple of years, Pres Sarkozy put a moritorium on road building. His reason was that he didn’t want France to be left behind the rest of Europe in efficient transport (rail) sytems.
Geez, Steve, even the pastures protection board gives hefty fines for over-stocking ...seems they have more sense than town planners.
Comment by Peggyb on 29 July 2009 at 08:56:05 AM