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Victoria's Water Shortage

JK80 — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 01:32:36 CST

When we think of deserts we may, have a vision of the Sahara, the Arabia, and the Gobi in China, depending on how geographically aware one is.
We normally associate desert with heat, whereas its actual definition lies within the lack of rainfall.
Antarctica is also one of the world’s largest deserts.

In Australia, we have the Great Victoria, the Great Sandy,
the Gibson and the Simpson deserts.

It is no secret that Australia is one of the driest continents in the world.
No doubt Burke and Wills would attest to this.

There are naturally areas of high rainfall, but are not in the areas where the majority of the population exists.

After the colonisation of the various states of Australia, the government set up the various water authorities within each state. The Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW) was created in 1891, to look after the building and supply of water to the city of Melbourne and its surrounds. Later in the 20th Century it was also responsible for the planning of major roads and arterials. It was later ‘corporatised’ in 1991.

From the MMBW’s inception Melbourne’s water was catered for by the building of storage facilities and dams with respect to the size and needs of the population.
Sylvan, Cardinia, Maroondah, are some of the major projects undertaken, with the Thompson being the last.

In the seventies there have been times of water shortage, and the watering of gardens was possible on even week days. In the eighties, the MMBW’s campaign was to “Use Water Wisely”. In the nineties there were also times of water shortage. In recent times, from the 2000’s onwards, we can easily recall times of water shortage. Every decade had its shortage of water. In the media there is always the mention of the drought. It is therefore of no surprise to the authorities that we live on a dry continent.

Since the trend in global politics is to privatise all government utilities, it is therefore inevitable that most or all of our utilities will be in control of private hands, and possibly in theory in the control of one company. The effects of a monopoly have been proven many times over to be detrimental to the general populous, examples of which are beyond the scope of this document. In the US, laws prevent monopolies from operating. No such laws exist here in Australia.

One solution that the government
proposes is one that is cheap and
takes away any onus away from it.
It’s one that it actively promotes
within the media, “Every household
a dam”. This directly places the onus
on the household owner, where
previously this was in the care of the
government. There has been no onus
laws put forward as the government
proposes. In the seventies people who
wanted to put in water tanks were
forbidden by their local councils, as
this would take away revenue from the
infrastructure. Currently people who
have registered their water tanks, have a higher water bill than prior to registration.

Another solution proposed by the government is that of a desalination plant. Several desalination plants exist in Western Australia, and have been operational for many years. In countries like Greece and Malta, desalination plants have existed for a long time. The government claims that it is an expensive proposition, but those countries have managed despite a lower GDP per capita than Australia. In this situation the Victorian government, again has been retro - active. The works to a proposed plant will be tendered out to a private company, and the price of water will rise significantly. Currently the government sells water to Coca Cola for $1.40 per million litres, whilst the average household payed $0.80 per 1000 litres or over 570 times more than Coca Cola.
Currently (01/'08) Coca Cola (in 2 litre bottles) retails at AUD$1.25 per litre.

In the last generation, there has been an approximate increase in population of 30% in Victoria. Since the ‘corporitisation’ of the water authority in Melbourne, there have not been any new sites developed for water storage or damming. Together with climate change, it is of no surprise that we are currently facing a water shortage. Therefore the direct responsibility for failure to provide the population with adequate water lies within the government.

The above information is a summary, with the assistance of ex MMBW engineers without prejudice or any political ties or agendas.

Our Digital Stories

the_e-team — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 20:15:36 CST

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WWOOFing for the environment

bethkov — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 01:18:49 CDT

Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOF) is an organisation that gives people the opportunity to gain first-hand experience in organic farming methods. There are over 1,500 hosts in Australia offering a wide range of opportunities for both the serious student of organics as well as the budget traveller. WWOOFing is a reciprocal arrangement that benefits farmers and voluntary workers alike, while also promoting the advantages of environmentally-friendly farming practices that minimise the use of chemicals, and that lead to increased biodiversity and balanced soil ecosystems.

Sustainable farming begins with green manure crops which are grown to help build nitrogen and humus levels in soils which, in turn, improve water-holding capacity, reduce pH fluctuations and increase long-term land fertility. These systems avoid the use of synthetic compounded fertilisers, pesticides, growth regulators and livestock feed additives, resulting in benefits to the environment and to human health. Organic farming aims to meet consumer demand for food products that are nutritious and low in, or free of, chemical residues.

Potential WWOOFers can choose a place they would like to go, and then contact the host to arrange a mutually suitable time to visit. The choice may be based on: geography (close to a route they are travelling); philosophy (such as biodynamic farming practices); or cultural preferences (many hosts speak other languages as well as English). WWOOFers live and work with host families in the same way as relatives and friends do when they visit. All WWOOF hosts agree to provide a safe haven for Willing Workers, supplying food and accommodation in exchange for 4 to 6 hours of work per day. This work can include everything from gardening and landscaping to animal care and property maintenance. For more information visit www.wwoof.com.au.

Beth Kovacs

Blog Action Day

AAQ — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 22:28:41 CDT

As of last week I have wanted to write up a small article for Blog Action Day! Upon wondering what to Blog about I wanted to express something which matters to me and for it to be in my words concerning the environment. I had decided to Blog about Blackle.

Blackle for those of you reading who are unaware, is a custom version of the Google search engine developed by Heap Media founded in Sydney Australia in 2005. Heap Media is committed to developing and growing leading online services with global reach.

So you may be asking, “why a custom Google search engine and what does this have to do with the environment”? This is where the purpose plays a role and ties itself with the environment in mind. Different colours consume different amounts of energy on computer monitors, displaying a black page on a CRT monitor is believed to consume 59 watts while a white page will chew through 74 watts. This means 15 watts of energy can be saved from using black instead of white page backgrounds. The creators of Blackle stated that the idea behind this came from a blog, which estimated that a black Google would save 750 Megawatt hours a year! Visit Blackle and take a look and see how many Watt hours have been saved, as I write this 251,975.399 Watt hours saved.

Some may be asking why I chose this topic and why this seems important to me, I’d have to say that just about everybody these days uses a computer, the internet is rampant. Day by day more people are buying PC’s and getting online, it’s no secret that Google is one of the largest search engines used in the world today! So many consumers, so much power consumption, what’s it hurt to use a black alternative to go green? :)

Home

the_e-team — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:43:34 CDT

Community Canvass is an Online resource for community based organisations in Victoria and Australia that are branching out into the networked world of Online communication. The contributors to Community Canvass are all learners of new media networking, host their own Blogs and contribute to this space. Await upcoming articles and reports by the contributors giving you up-to-date reports on events and developments from these Online Communities. We hope to provide an informative space that will allow you the opportunity to be a part of community coming together in the virtual world.