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Brumby and co claim water success

Posted by: 3AW Radio | 12 January, 2010 - 2:11 PM

The Brumby Government claims its water saving iniatives have saved Melbourne from running out of water despite the lowest run-offs to the catchments in history.

In the past decade just under 4 billion litres of water flowed into the city's major dams - more than a thousand billion litres less than in the 80s.

At the same time Melburnians have cut their water usuage to the lowest in decades.

The Government is claiming success is on the back of its Target 155 campaign.

Melbourne Water managing director Rob Skinner blames the lack of water flowing into the dams on climate change.

Do we need the water pipeline?

Water After a report in The Age by Peter Ker raised questions over whether the $750 million north-south water pipeline is even needed, Tim Holding said on 3AW it is fair enough Melbourne residents should have less stringent water restrictions. Is the whole project just a Labor Party ploy to attract Melbourne votes in an election year? We want to know what you think.

Blog comments Your Say

  • C'mon Brumby admit you got it wrong!Melbourne doesn't need our water. We in the north do! Who would pay for a whole tank of petrol and only get half.

    Colin Tuesday 12 January, 2010 - 10:09 PM
  • Brumby, WHAT or WHO did you sell off this time to fund your Political ambitions?

    Lenny Tuesday 12 January, 2010 - 6:08 PM
  • Mr. Skinner is blaming low flows into City storages on climate change, surely he is aware that climate change experts have indicated the north of the state will become much dryer than the south. Less water for those who live along the rivers, the environment and our food growers but still 75GL will go down the pipeline. Perhaps the country folk will be the reason for the cities population growth as they search for water.

    Mary Tuesday 12 January, 2010 - 5:40 PM
  • Melbourne is not going to run out of water without the north south pipeline.
    According to a press release dated January 12,Melburnians consumed 357 billion litres of water last year and Melbourne Waters storages received inflows of 368.7 billion litres. The average inflows over the last 13
    years of drought were actually 376 billion litres, some 19 billion litres more than the annual use. With close to two years supply in store the ministers previous claims are misleading at least. The minister is determined to pump 75 billion litres of water previously reserved for the environment from the Goulburn River into the sugarloaf reservoir which has a capacity of 96 billion litres and is currently
    holding 74 billion litres.
    I wonder if the new $4.7million advertising campaign will include
    suggestions on how to collect the water that wont fit in sugarloaf
    further down stream.

    Panky Tuesday 12 January, 2010 - 5:12 PM
  • Of course we (and industry?) can reduce our water consumption by 10%, but what happens when our population grows by more than 10%?

    Bill Tuesday 12 January, 2010 - 4:49 PM
  • The Brumby Govt is the ONLY state government that still allows water meters to be placed in apartmnet Towers to be paid for by Unit Lot Liabilty. This issue has been addressed in other states and water meters are based on useage (cold and hot water) ..Why would any one care what they use when the whole building pays for it??? If planning gets its way and there are larger complexes being built then they should get there act together and sort out the basics first..and as for how much the Towers put down the drains weekly for fire service checks well just ask some of those who really know the truth..its a farce!!

    Michele Anderson Tuesday 12 January, 2010 - 4:45 PM

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