Water for Survival
Published - The Age Thursday, December 28, 2006
It is not good enough for the Victorian government to simply pray for rain. There is absolutely no excuse for running this population out of water. The Gippsland-Melbourne two-way pipeline sounds good, but with such grand engineering schemes, there is no telling how long until the drinkable water will flow. Similarly for grand scale cleaning of dirty water.
The prospect of running dry must be totally eliminated. Victoria should install a desalination plant as insurance. A tried and proven one please: it is said Israel has a most efficient plant. We may use it a lot or a little. But a responsible government must have a bomb-proof backup for uncertain water supplies.
Philip O'Carroll