Call to Build an Invisible Dam for Sydney

Thursday, 02 October 2003 10:00

"It's a dam made up of water conservation and recycling efforts involving major changes to our water supply infrastructure and consumption practices. It won't be a boutique dam, but will allow Sydney to stabilise water consumption at sustainable levels and even allow growth," said Jeff Angel, Director of Total Environment Centre.

"Our report card contains the core elements that will build an invisible dam - so far the government has delivered only 2 out of 12 items. Even if we get good rains in coming months the underlying unsustainable situation faced by Sydney will not change. So we will continue to report on the government's progress.

Brooke Flanagan, Executive Officer of the Nature Conservation Council said: "Recent measures announced by the Government to reduce water consumption are a good start. But we need to be looking beyond these measures in order to reach a sustainable level of water use."
"Reducing our water consumption to sustainable levels must become a way of life. Building another monolithic concrete dam on yet another river is just not an option. We need to be using what we have for more effectively. We need an invisible dam."

REPORT CARD ITEMS

TOTAL CONSUMPTION TARGET (500gl)
PERMANENT WATER RESTRICTIONS
REVISE SECURITY OF SUPPLY
MANDATORY CONSERVATION (new dwellings)- p
SYDNEY RETROFIT (existing dwellings)
UNRESTRICTED RAIN'W'TANK USE - p, d
RAIN'W'TANK REBATE - p, d
PENALTY PRICING SWC - p
WATER EFFICIENCY CREDITS -p
HIGHER WATER PRICING - p
RECYCLING TARGET
REFORM IPART
p = promised d = delivered