Drinking water for people; recycled for agriculture
According to Brisbane resident John Black, former Queensland Labor senator, one in seven Australians lives in south-east Queensland and we’re running out of water, reported The Australian Financial Review (5 August 2006 p63).
Pecking order at the water trough: Agriculture is taking 65 per cent of our drinking water and industry has been taking another 14 per cent. Urban consumers are taking only about 12 per cent of available water.
To each according to his need: "But now politicians want to mix treated sewage back in with the water remaining in our dams, so people, farmers and industry can all share it, rather than leaving the drinking water to people, and providing the infrastructure so industry and farmers take what comes out of the other end of the drinking process, if you follow my drift," says Black.
Bring on the empty dams: In case you thought drinking treated sewage was bad enough, our politicians also want to sell part of our electricity networks so they can finance the building of two more empty dams, Traveston to the north of Brisbane on the Mary River and Wyaralong to the south, to provide an extra 91,000 megalitres, at a cost of $2.2 billion.
God’s eye view: Mary River flows into the Great Sandy Straits, adjoining World Heritage-listed Fraser Island, and another dead river and a few green toxic algae blooms in the shallow waters of the straits should make for great satellite photos, along with the nice red pollution plumes from the coal-fired power stations in southeast Queensland that scientists claim are driving the rain from the inland dam catchment areas and making it fall closer to the coast, where the people live.
The Australian Financial Review, 5/8/2006, p. 63
Source: Erisk Net