The people of Sydney have been able to achieve an admirable reduction in water usage in their homes, and it is important that they are also mindful of the water needs of the places they travel to for their holidays this summer, according to NSW Upper House Greens MP Ian Cohen.
“Hundreds of thousands of Sydneysiders will be relaxing on the Central Coast, an area where a temporary desalination plant is being proposed, primarily to facilitate the tourist influx. It is vital holidaymakers are aware of this and adjust their water usage accordingly,” Mr Cohen said.
“It is also time for the NSW Government to retreat from what appears to be their headlong descent into the madness of desalination for Sydney.
“The NSW Government is a long way behind the people of NSW when it comes to conserving water. It appears they need to be reminded, yet again, that there are a number of cheaper and more environmentally friendly options open to them.
“One way in which water savings can be achieved is through better demand management. Water restrictions have a part to play in this area, but a lot more also needs to be done to reduce people’s dependence on the centralised water supply.
“If the government doubled the rebate for water tanks there’d need to be a million homes accepting the offer before it would equal the expense of building the proposed desalination plant, and they obviously would have none of the associated running costs.
“Water tanks truly are the gift that keeps on giving. Every extra raindrop captured is a drop that doesn’t need to come out of our dams. Concern over whether rain fell in the catchment would be a thing of the past. There’d be hundreds of thousands of little catchments everywhere.
“Conversely, every drop not captured is a drop wasted. Major water infrastructure should be focussed on recycling and stormwater harvesting, not desalination.
“My Christmas wish is for NSW to overcome the mentality that water is a resource that can be used once only. If we could achieve this then desalination wouldn’t be needed in Gosford, Sydney or anywhere else.
“Desalination plants also produce a phenomenal amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Constructing one to address a critical water shortage whilst 450 billion litres are regurgitated into the ocean each year would shred this government’s credentials on both water and climate change,” said Mr Cohen.
Further Information: Michael Hidden 9230 3305 / 0431 320 085
Ian Cohen: 0409 989 466
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