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October 5, 2009
From what I can gather from my brief visit Ballarat has severe water problems.
It appears to rely on Moorabool River for its water; a river that is already so over utilized that it does not have enough flow in it to support the amount of water taken from it. Without this river Ballarat has no reliable source of water.
Gary Sauer-Thompson, Lake Windouree, Ballarat, 2009
Hence the Goldfields Superpipe, which transfers water to secure supplies for Ballarat and Bendigo (for the next 50 years?) from Lake Eppalock.
This water strategy does not address low rainfall and inflow into the lake, the amount of water taken out of the lake by irrigators and the increasing number of farm dams. The hope is that the rains will return and there will be water for everybody.The Victorian government blurb says that the
Victorian Water Grid further links our water systems across the State by building new connections and pipelines. This allows water to be moved around Victoria to where it is needed most and reduces the impact of localised droughts in this era of climate change...This gives us a network of almost 10,000 kilometres of pipeline to deliver water to those areas that need it most.
It is a stop gap 19th century solution that buys time. How does expanding the Water Grid to pipe water around the State in the context of declining water supplies and increased demand provide water security.
The long term strategy in a world of climate change is...what? There seems to be hostility to water recycling in Victoria.The assumption is that the desalination plant is all that is needed.
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