the quiet revolution

Sydney's water use slammed
Tom Richardson and Asa Wahlquist
July 25, 2005
THE federal Government has warned that Sydneysiders may need to accept recycled drinking water, amid criticism of the Carr Government's proposed $2 billion desalination plant. Gary Nairn, parliamentary secretary to John Howard and National Water Initiative administrator, said the contentious plant would be an "inefficient" use of resources that sent the wrong signal about the nation's scant water resources. Mr Nairn indicated he would give substantial sums to cheap, sustainable projects such as the Rann Government's mooted Waterproofing Adelaide scheme.

"If our sums are right, they will save 70 gigalitres of water for a total cost of $200 million," he said.

Mr Nairn said the proposals were in stark contrast to what was happening in Sydney, where the Carr Government "did not appreciate the real value of water" and was not using the city's water in the most efficient way. NSW Utilities Minister Frank Sartor has ruled out using recycled water for drinking, in the wake of a survey showing that 68 per cent of Sydneysiders were against imbibing recycled sewage.

Mr Nairn said Mr Sartor had been "rubbishing recycling", a stance that "might send the wrong signal".

"They're claiming that the people of Sydney won't cop recycled water ... They're OK to stick it in the garden, but to use it to add to the city's water supply, they won't cop it," Mr Nairn said. "What the state Government ought to be doing is carrying out some education, rather than reinforcing this scare tactic."

Sydney recycles only 3 per cent of its water. By contrast, Adelaide re-uses 19 per cent of its waste water, the highest proportion in Australia.

The Australian Council for Infrastructure Development argues the low price of water is also thwarting new water-recycling projects. Council chief executive Dennis O'Neill said a proposal in Brisbane to pipe recycled water into the Ipswich Valley was rejected because it "would not be economic at current water prices".

Melbourne Water is studying a proposal that would replace 100billion litres a year of drinking water, used for the cooling of Latrobe Valley power stations, with recycled water. Mr O'Neill said the power stations "don't need that quality of water, and this proposal is about releasing a huge amount of drinking-quality water to go into drinking-water pipes, and put industrial water into the pipes that service the power stations, which is the right approach". But there was a catch, he said. "The big challenge is that the power stations pay next to nothing for their water at the moment."

Mr O'Neill said the project was expected to cost more than $1 billion, but at current water prices it would not be economic. Urban water in Australia costs between $1 and $1.20 per thousand litres. "The equivalent in Israel is about $3 and in Sweden about $5," he said. "It strikes me we have to address the water pricing issue as a first-order issue before we can start looking at some of these larger, more heroic projects."
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