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May 25, 2004
I attended a public lecture on the significance of water for Adelaide's future as a city last night. It was given by Professor Peter Cullen in the Adelaide Town Hall as part of the thinkers in residence programme. An earlier talk by Cullen can be found here.
The public lecture was a stellar event. The town hall was packed. All the important movers and shakers in public policy were there. The nation is facing a water crisis where demand oustrips supply. But we gathered together in Adelaide to hear the assumptions underpining our taken-for-granted way of life being challenged. The basic assumption in Adelaide is that you can protect the river's health and continue to take the water that you need from the river whilst pointing the the finger of blame upstream. You still hear water dreaming about towing icebergs from Antarctica to solve Adelaide's water problems.
Cullen's talk was entitled 'Making Waves - water challenges for Adelaide in the 21st Century'. It outlined how South Australians need to create a sustainable environment in which our scarce water resources are respected and managed. He argued that Adelaide cannot rely on the River Murray as a lifeline anymore. It must start to think in an innovative way, rather than just assume that increased economic growth will continue to underpinned by the ecological health of the river country. All that needs to happen if for the eastern states to sort out their conflicts.
The city cannot assume this because Adelaide is going to face a water squeeze in the next 50 years. The water may not be there, and if it is, the water may well be too salty to be drinkable or usable. Adelaide, however, was not facing up this. Economics ruled, not ecology. The urban culture was very complacent about continuing to assume that the River Murray would continue to act as the city's ecological life support system. So world's best practice in water management is needed to deal with the water squeeze.
Adelaide has to work out how to live sustainably in a dry country by protecting the sources of water, manage the reduction in demand and find alternative sources of water. Doing this will mean that Adelaide will need to become innovative and clever.
So it is not just the wasteful upstream rice growers taking too much water as South Australians point out. South Australia needs to get its own house in order and claw back water from its own irrigators. It also has to start doing something about the wastage of River Murray water by Adelaide urban users who are currenly pouring 50% of that water on the water-guzzling European gardens. Why aren't they using recycled storm and water for their English gardens?
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If you were going for the Guinness Book of Records 'shortest blogpost in history', you failed by a word. I remember Atrios posting the word 'fuck' once, hyperlinked to some Bush atrocity or or other.