Victoria’s water storages are at an all time low after the driest autumn on record. The Thompson Dam which captures water from Gippsland to be pumped over the mountains to Melbourne is only 17 per cent full and there is no rain in site. A new pipeline is being built to take a gigalitre of water from the Murray Darling for Melbourne each year. The state’s second largest city, Ballarat, ran out of water six months ago and has been pumping water from the ailing Goulburn river ever since. A source close to the City Council told the Generator that water restrictions in Ballarat may be lifted in the next month. Farmers and environmentalists believe that the cities should be making major structural changes to their water use, efficiency and recycling.
