Region water supply plan ‘doesn’t add up’

Hamish Heard
The likelihood of Melbourne running out of drinking water within 18 months has eliminated one of the Labor party’s back-up plans for boosting Geelong’s supply, the state opposition said yesterday.
Shadow Minister for Water Denis Napthine said State Government’s strategy ignored the “real possibility” of Melbourne running dry.
He called on the Bracks Government for a “greater sense of urgency”, saying Geelong and Bendigo’s drinking supplies would be in “real trouble” by the end of next year if the drought continued.
Dr Napthine was “aware” of figures indicating Melbourne storages were rapidly running out.
According to Melbourne Water, the city’s storages have dropped to 43 per cent capacity, nearly 300,000 megalitres lower than at the same time last year.
If rain and consumption continue at present rates, storages will dwindle to about 470,000ML by November, 2007.
Deakin University water expert Associate Professor Bas Baskaran said one year’s supply in the bottom of reservoirs would be “unrecoverable” due to mud and sediment.
Based on the figures and the continuation of drought in Victoria, Melbourne could be drinking bottled water by mid-2008, Dr Napthine said.
The Geelong region also faced a “real possibility” of running dry.
But a spokesman for Minister for Water John Thwaites said Labor had guaranteed Geelong’s long-term supplies with its Central Region Sustainable Water Strategy, released last month.
“We won’t let Geelong run out of water,” he said.
Work on a “super pipe” to supplement inland water supplies would also increase water available to Geelong while the Government was “investigating” tapping borewater, he said.
A “major recycling initiative” to deliver second-hand water to Geelong’s industrial users would also free local drinking supplies.