I live in one of the nicest areas in the world. A little town about two hours north of Brisbane in the state of Queensland in Australia – an area known as the Mary Valley or the Cooloola Shire – an area of rich beauty and abundant wildlife – an area probably unheard of outside south eastern Queensland.
Now this south eastern corner of Queensland is running out of water. The powers that be have decided to build yet another damn. We are running out water now. A damn will take up to five years to build and another five years to be full enough to harvest water from. It certainly will not solve any water problems today. “We are building for the future” is the claim.
What strikes me as odd is some of the rationale behind building a damn. Don’t get me wrong. Queensland does need more water resources. The population is growing quickly and we are in the midst of one of the states worst droughts. With climate change it is possible that things will get worse.
Yes, the area they have chosen to damn is the Mary Valley. Now why have they chosen this area? Why not? The Mary Valley does happen to get a little rain so why not damn it? However, with the state in the midst of a drought and with primary production falling quickly, why would you damn very productive farming ground that is receiving sufficient rain fall to remain productive? Do we need water, or do we need food? Obviously both.
Perhaps the answer is not in damning the few remaining productive areas! Perhaps the answer lies in producing water from other sources. As the Australian National Anthems states, we are “a nation girthed by sea”. With all this water surrounding us, why can we not harvest water from the sea. It is expensive, that I concede, but so is the reclaiming of peoples homes, their land and the loss of rare productive farming land.
We could recycle water. This has been very contentious and I can understand why. Who wants to drink recycled sewerage? Sound horrible on the face of it. But let us look at the facts. First, as I understand it the recycled water would be mixed with damn water at less than ten percent. Secondly, our damns are actually public recreation areas. People swim in our damns and while swimming commit many acts that pollute the water. Dogs swim in these damns. Birds crap in them. Fish swim and die in them. Power boats and skiers use the damns. Vegetation slowly rots in them. I think recycled water sounds purer than the damn water.
I want to provide my children with a future. A future that includes adequate supplies of water. A future that includes adequate land to produce food. Finally, what haven’t mentioned so far, protection of the bio-diversity and some of the rare creatures that may well be wiped out if this damn is built – but that is another story……
I’m sure the process of cleaning the recycled water would not be very different the process of cleaning tap water for drinking.
I’ve just found your excellent blog. You have some really useful articles in here – so I shall be back for another read when I get back from work. Keep it coming…