Pipedream
An epic monument to the triumph of populist politics, the controversial North-South Pipeline project has become a telling symbol of a government well and truly out of its depth.
Water security will be one of the defining issues of this century yet on the world’s driest, inhabited continent, a State Government is attempting to secure the water supply of a major capital city by charging headlong up the proverbial creek. The fact that there are no paddles and the canoe has a hole has seemingly failed to daunt the Brumby Government. Indeed, in a blatant display of double standards, the government has clearly decided that the ‘Our Water/Our Future’ plan was a misprint and the only future worthy of concern is that of the three and a half million voters who live in Melbourne.
By building a 75km pipeline linking the Goulburn River to a Melbourne reservoir, the government hopes to secure both Melbourne’s immediate water supply and its own re-election. The Goulburn is a tributary of the Murray River, and the 750 million dollar scheme is dependent on an upgrade of irrigation infrastructure in the Murray-Darling Irrigation District, which will initially allow annual water savings of up to 225 gigalitres. Two thirds of this amount will be shared between increasingly desperate irrigators and a suffering environment. The remaining 75 billion litres will be used to keep the lawns of Melbourne green.
The government is desperate to acquire the water savings as a political quick fix to temporarily alleviate Melbourne’s inevitable water crisis. The issue is that the precious savings, earmarked as a hasty electoral band-aid for Melbourne voters, are desperately needed by irrigators and the river itself. A 750 million dollar slap in the face for rural Victoria, the pipeline fiasco has shown only that the increasingly panicked government is willing to ignore farmers and sacrifice an Australian icon to gain city votes. The Dutch tell of a young boy who saved the nation from flooding by stemming a leaking dyke with his finger. The government’s hastily concocted water security plan is rapidly springing leaks and our politicians are fast running out of fingers.
The Murray is in crisis. Drought for the past seven years has resulted in record low inflows and the entire Murray Darling system is operating at roughly 23% of capacity. According to the Murray Darling Basin Commission late last year, inflows have been below average for the past thirty seven consecutive months and the lower lakes and Coorong are in a critical condition. The Murray Goulburn system also supports 14,000 struggling irrigators, who contribute 1.5 billion dollars a year to the economy. The seasonal water allocations for Goulburn Murray Water customers stand at 28% for the Goulburn and 33% for the Murray. Irrigators in the Broken, Campaspe, Loddon and Bullarook Creek systems will receive no water at all.
Yet, incredibly, it has been decided that the needs of Melbourne take precedence over irrigators who have been denied their water allocation, and a river described as suffering the worst drought ‘on record’.
In the face of such statistics, even the Australian Senate have realised that the scheme is an act of lunacy. There is simply not enough water in the Murray Goulburn system to justify a pipeline to a thirsty city. What is more, due to climate change, there may never again be a surplus of water in our river systems. A CSIRO report has forecast a reduction in rainfall of up to 30% this century and a notable decline in rainfall across south-eastern Australia has already occurred since 1950. The State Government’s own estimates forecast a future, climate change induced reduction in inflows and catchments of up to 64%.
The Murray Darling Basin has been in drought for almost a decade. The future of thousands of rural Victorians literally depends on continued flows and, in years to come, climate change will further tax a river system that is already in a parlous condition. What possible justification can there be for exacerbating this already dire situation by piping water to a greedy city? Melbourne does not need a pipeline built to steal water from a dying river but, rather, solutions that are viable, sustainable and intended as more than blatant vote grabbing. Pipedreams that ignore the realities of a water system in crisis should not be the provenance of those who a have a duty to create a responsible plan for Victoria’s future. The pipeline is far from a harmless knee-jerk reaction. It will damage not only the river, but also irrigators who have already survived decades of hardship. This time, the blow may be fatal.
Alexander Coward, 19, is a Policy Officer at Left Right Think-Tank, Australia’s first independent and non-partisan think-tank of young minds.
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