Drought.

[aussiecolector]

I'm with Outback On this one.

The thing I think is stupid about water restictions in most towns ( not that I live in town ) is that they control how you use the water not how much. Even on level 5 in Toowoomba you can legaly use as much water as you want just don't use it outside.

[Tex79]

I'm not anywhere near conviced the climate has changed forever. Let's face it, we only have reliable records for the last 200 years or so. I don't think we cans say definitively there has been a change forever and ever.

I agree with outback also, 200 years out of the previous 250 million is only a minute portion, it might be part of a cycle. However I can't imagine that all of the polution is making it any better. Unfortunaely the government seems to get blinded by all of the money being waved in their faces by those large corporations who don't want to reduce green house emissions, as they will loose a small amount of money out of the billions they are raking in.
In the end it's up to "responsible" home owners to reduce their water consumption, however we don't live in a perfect world and this one seems to be full of ignorant morons who refuse to obey the simplest of rules which are still fairly laxed in Adelaide.

[HappyHammer]

.... Front page had photos of the mighty Darling river just about dried up. I never thought a river system as big as it is could run to a trickle the way it has......

Isn't the problem with the Murray system down to poor management and irrigation? Anyone seen two men in a tinnie on the ABC? They used to have paddle steamers on the river but now you can bottom out in a two man tinnie....

HH.

[PommiePete]

Yeah. Didn't they water the track prior to the last Melbourne Cup to improve it for the favourites? What a waste! And my horse was even wearing flippers!

[Auld Bassoon]

Drought
I live in Central West NSW on 800 ha (2000 acres) and run cattle on this 3-1/4 sq miles of sticks & rocks & dust. Our average rainfall is 26 inches and we have had 9" so far this year (about 30% of our average). The last four years have been about the same. So I am in business to supplement my farm loss but my customer base is 90% broke farmers. All of a sudden I have become a de-facto financier for my customers. How dumb is that?
BUT
I wouldnt trade places with anyone. My farm raised kids have grown up to be heads down committed & ambitious workers with common sense and true blue aussie values. I have an endless supply of native timber. Every day that goes by is a day closer to the rain that will get us back to normal seasons. I live far enough out of town to have my weekends to myself. Cant think of a better place to be right here and right now.

Good on yer mate I really hope that you and those like you can pull through.

Take care!

[Bluegum]

I was taking to a bloke who owns a tree farm here. He's a rock doctor by trade and has moved into the tree world for something different. He to feels that the current climate is the worlds weather pattern changing. He showed me a study that is being done by French scientists in Antartica. They're boring into the ice and bringing up Co2 and methane gases which have been frozen over millions of years. From statistics shown they feel the world has heated up, but is also getting ready to cool down. He claims that this has been going on for millions of years and that our trees are able to live with Co2 levels at around 6%. Currently they say the levels are sitting at around 2.5%. According to his statistics anywhere in the next 50-100 years the earths temp should drop by by around 5 degrees or so. I guess all we can do is wait and see if it does happen. ( don't think I will be here to see it though).

[sbranden]

I am with Peter on this one. I think climate change is happening and is a major component in the recent lack of rain. We will get rain, more and more it will come in the form of extreme weather like storms.

The South Australian government is starting to look hard at facts from the CSIRO about global warming and Rann has stated it is frightenning. Some time soon the Australian government will be forced to look at our future a little more than their politics, but they will fight it.

You know what wars over oil are like, just wait until we have wars over water.

shaun

[echnidna]

The thingthat's got me beat is that a year or so ago there was a huge furore when the NSW govt decided theway of the future for urban water supplies was desalination.

Logical thinking rorted by wackers.:eek:

[Bleedin Thumb]

I take it Echidna you beleive that the solution to urban water shortages is to build desalination plants.
Well I'll be damned I must be one of those wackers you mentioned.:eek:

Co's I recon that any "solution" that requires a constant high input of energy to work is a no goer. Not only are we in the midst of a water crises but we are rapidly approaching an energy crises which means
1 You spend many millions on a plant that you are then obligated to spend millions and million more on to keep going.
2 The energy that is produced to keep the sucker going is also adding to greenhouse gas emissions.
When all that you needed to do was instigate recycling policies that have been standard practice in Europe for the last 15 years

I recon the Bob Carr had been done by some US sales rep just like the Mono rail, Tunnel builders etc etc:mad:
Its easier to throw money at one project than to initiate and implement a deep seated management system.
Wackers of the world unite!

[Auld Bassoon]

The thingthat's got me beat is that a year or so ago there was a huge furore when the NSW govt decided theway of the future for urban water supplies was desalination.

Logical thinking rorted by wackers.:eek:

Back in the early-mid 70's when I was still living in Jersey, the local Govt decided to build a desalination plant (the island is basically a large granite rock, so has no worthwhile groundwater, just a few dams to collect the run-off, and in summer it can get quite warm so evaporation is a big deal. Water was then (now?) shippen in, of all things!).

Anyway, the designers decided to make it oil-fired, and it was completed just before the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973-74...

It was "mothballed" shortly thereafter. Jersey is only a little island with a then population of about 65,000, so could ill afford a GBP 80,000,000 project that went nowhere...

Blasted pollies!

[Andy Mac]

I'm with Bleedin' Thumb on this one, desalination is a not the long term solution. Besides the energy input, I have read that the effluent in the form of super saline water is an issue for local seabed ecosystems. I don't think we can afford less natural fish breeding areas, overfishing and all.
The drought is real and its so wide spread as to be a hint of things to come. But no one really knows of the droughts that went on here before records were kept. I think Tim Flannery hints at some major prehistoric events in his book "The Future Eaters", like severe dry periods for hundreds of years. Maybe this is part of a major cyclic thing, and we're caught in the start of it?:confused:
What ever, we have to manage a dwindling water supply with increased population pressure. I mean, you should see the suburban sprawl that has bloomed in Toowoomba (and surrounds) in the last 10yrs. Awesome number of new housing developments, small farms cleared and cut up into tiny blocks and everyone flushing, and watering new gardens. Then surprise surprise there isn't enough water to go round. The council might have brought in svere restrictions, but have they curbed development, contained it in untill there's decent rain?! I don't think so...although interest rates rises have made an impact, well at least a slowdown in building applications. Concretors reporting about a 15% downturn in demand.
If we have to develop to take a moving population, infrastructure has to develop to ensure suitable water supply. The drought is bringing that home.

Cheers.

[Bondy1s]

Thanks, Auld for your mesage of support.
My attitude to this drought is a bit philosophical, I guess. We all have our own opinion on the cause and are quick to lay the blame on ourselves (humans being the geographical equivalent of a virus infecting the earth) and our use of fossil fuels, land clearing, blah blah blah. We just dont know. University graduates with fantastically well paid jobs can tell us what their tutors were flogging at the time but have any of them actually had an original thought? They base their suppositions on inadequate data and blame farmers, oil companies, commuters, governments, you name it, on the cause.

We do not have the right to unlimited water.

What about we just accept it and modify our lifestyle/habits etc to accommodate the lack of water in the same way most of us modify our lifestle /habits etc to accommodate lack of money (a problem most of us have to deal with daily). If you havent got it, dont spend it.

I use an egg-cup full of water to brush my teeth, a cup full of water to shave and 10 litres to wash my car about once a month. We re-use our bathwater to maintain a flower and vegie garden. This we have done not just during the dry spell but for the past thirty years. It is a simple fact of life to those on a tank supply. If we could educate the population and multiply a similar frugal use of this precious resource across the country there would be no water crisis.

Drought is a natural phenomenon probably beyond our control. Water wastage is within our power to control. The blame for our predicament belongs to the person who looks back at you from the mirror every morning.

[Bodgy]

It's raining in Sydney.

Alack,. Alay,. Oh fraptious day!!

[Bob38S]

No rain here....

What is it really about?

Drought?
Climate change?
Global warming?
Ozone?
Fossil fuel usage?
People?
Co2?
Dams?
Desalination?
Recycling?
Overuse?
Haves & have nots?
Etc?

Nuh

It's all about $$$$$$$$$$$$$$

We are in a hell of a crisis at the moment - I think we will get through it [eventually] but not by the good management of politicians and government - what's the answer? - I'm not really sure but I do know that we need to be really careful because this is a MegaBucks problem - I can see some of the schemers and sharks circling already ready to rip us off with their easy fix schemes and poorly researched ideas pedalled as science.

[bsrlee]

In NSW, the pollies of both persuasions have been pumping money out of the Metropolitan Water Board for years - result is that the pipes are breaking down, leaking, whatever. These are also the same bunch of D***h**ds that have for years blocked rainwater tanks and recycling for homes as it was much more profitable for them to charge for water and to pour rainwater into the drains and charge for 'drainage' to remove it. Perhaps we need to dig up a few old pollies & display their mouldy parts for public scorn.

They talk of making people drink 'recycled sewerage' in order to prop up plans for expensive desalination plants, which strangely enough would work much better at recycling sewerage. (And there is an Australian company that makes compact, efficient water recycling machinery, just not huge desalination plants)

Why not pump the stuff to Goulburn and let it filter its way thru the catchment area, conveniently fertilizing some farmland on its way to Warragamba? I saw a brief bit on 'Landline' a few years ago about a 'Country' town (city?) that was doing pretty much that - spraying 'primary treated' water onto a large tree plantation/park area outside town, which was avoiding both algal blooms from nitrates & phosphates in the river they drew their drinking water from and also trapping heavy metals that accumulate in sewerage. Probably too smart, and not enough kickbacks to either side of parliament.