Curse less and dam more
by Viv Forbes, science writer
Water conservation peaked in Australia in 1972 – our last big dam was Wivenhoe in Queensland built 35 years ago.
Elsewhere in Australia, water conservation virtually stopped when Don Dunstan halted the building of Chowilla Dam on the Murray in 1970 and Bob Brown’s Greens halted the Franklin Dam in 1983 (and almost every other dam proposal since then).
The Darling River water management disaster shows that we now risk desperate water shortages because our population and water needs have more than doubled, and much of our stored water has been sold off or released to “the environment”.
However, we regularly see floods of water being shed by the Great Dividing Range, most of it ending up in the Pacific Ocean, while somewhere to the west of that watershed is in severe drought.
Our ancestors had the prudence and the will to build great assets like the Tasmanian and Snowy hydro schemes, Lake Argyle, Fairbairn Dam and the Perth to Kalgoorlie water pipeline? What are we building for our children?
Politicians can pass laws or find money for games, stadiums, climate jamborees, study tours, gifts to foreigners, green energy toys and useless giant batteries. Canberra alone spends a billion dollars every day.
Our engineers know how to lay large pipelines over hundreds of km to export natural gas, and bore road and rail tunnels through mountains and under cities and harbours.
But we cannot find the funds or the courage to build a couple of dams on the rainy side of the Great Divide somewhere between the Ross River at Townsville and the Clarence River at Grafton and some pumps, tunnels and pipes to use and release it into the thirsty Darling River basin.
Someone is always cursing either droughts or floods.
We need to curse less and dam more.
Thanks Larry for your informative replies. The Greens in Oz thank God are fizzling out, but not after inflicting monumental damage to Australian culture and economy. You have Trump if you can keep him there but we have almost nobody with his ability, ingenuity and intellect. There are probably only three independent MP’s who come close. They are Bob Katter,72; Robert Katter Jnr MP; Senator Fraser Anning and senator in exile Rod Culleton. We did have Pauline Hanson but she just nominated a self-confessed Muslim for a candidate. The closet is bare except for the hidden communists and subversives of the political parties.Ed
Good insights. We have a similar situation here in California. Reservoirs capture the snow melt from the mountains in the spring and early summer. This is a source of much water for the state’s agriculture and for its citizens living in cities. Our water needs have doubled in the past few decades as our population has also doubled. But, there have been no significant additions to the capacity of our reservoirs and no new dams of any significance since the 1970s.
It is the Green mentality allied with other interests that are really hurting people around the world.
All Parties are Complicit in What has been happening to our Country since Federation when they all got together to Rort the Public ,When you get Monkeys , You Get what You Get . Our Problem is that the ones who should be Taking Notice All Live in the Cities.
Correct! It is not that we can’t – it is that they won’t – little will. I support pipes to carry water over the divide – look at the situation at the moment – we could open up huge area of Australia. They just built a gas pipeline!!! But of course it is not part of the Agenda. What a agenda I hear you say.. Agenda 2030 of course. We are designated as a quarry.. Somehow we must remove the criminals who control the foreign corporation : COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA!
I have just a few moments ago sent a Message to the PM about this exact thing. Deserts in other Countries have been brought back to life with Water. We talk about these things and do nothing, mainly because of the Greens and Labor.