Alex White » water

Good news for Tony Abbott: “Build more dams” thought bubble fails basic logic test

Alex — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 07:16:24 +0000

Tony Abbott, Liberals Party leader, has proposed a “vision” for Australia that involves building more dams. This will solve our water problems and stop flooding.

Lake Eppalock, Victoria.

“I just think it’s a bit odd in a country with as many water issues that we’ve got that there have been virtually no dams built in the last two decades,” Mr Abbott said yesterday.

Mr Abbott said dams offered more than just water storage.

“They’re flood-mitigation devices; they’re a potential source of emissions-free baseload electricity; they’re an important adjunct to food security; they’re a source of environmental flows in dry times,” Mr Abbott said. “Dams are a lot of important benefits to our community and for the last two decades, largely thanks to the Greens, we’ve had this dam phobia. It’s time we shook it off and I think the floods are an illustration of the sorts of issues that we can use dams to help.”

Unfortunately for Tony Abbott, his “more dams” thought bubble fails even the most basic logic test.

Let’s put aside some of the basic problems. Problems like the fact that most rivers in Australia that are suitable for dams already have one or more dams. Problems like the fact that dams stop nutrients from flowing down river to fisheries. We’ll even put aside the fact that when the once-in-a-century floods are over, we’ll be back to low rainfall, drought conditions.

Abbott says that dams are flood mitigation devices as well as water storage devices. Unfortunately, you can’t have magic dams.

Dams for water storage need to be full. This means that they can’t be used as flood mitigation devices. And when there is no rain, water storage dams sit empty.

Dams for flood mitigation need to be empty. This means that they can’t be used as water storage devices. Or environmental flows. Or food security. Or hydro.

It takes only a minute of consideration about Tony Abbott’s “build more dams” thought bubble to realise it is utterly nonsensical.

The Murray Darling Basin Plan

Alex — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 11:09:47 +0000

The debate around the Murray Darling Basin Plan is deeply disappointing, not least the political debate, which is characterised by opportunism and meekness respectively. It doesn’t help that the Basin has been a political football for decades, most recently in 2007 when Howard tried to use the Basin to buttress his non-existent environmental credentials through the “National Plan for Water Security”.

I’ve done a bit of policy work on the Murray Darling Basin (MDB), looking at water trading. Australia urgently needs action in the MDB, and I would argue that water trading is an important part of the solution to the current long-running crisis. I wrote this back in 2007:

The Murray-Darling Basin is Australia’s largest river catchment, and extends from Roma in Queensland to Goolwa in South Australia, and runs through New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT. Two million Australians rely directly on the Murray-Darling Basin, and a further one million are heavily dependent on its resources. Forty per cent of Australia’s gross value agricultural production is derived from the Basin, which accounts for seventy per cent of Australia’s water usage.

Australia is now experiencing one of the most prolonged and severe droughts in its history, the result of which has seen the levels of the Murray River and Darling River drop to record lows. The Murray-Darling Basin, as at June 2006, was at sixty per cent of its previous minimum levels. This drought has resulted in serious water shortages for agricultural use and environmental flows, and placed domestic use at great risk.

Until recently, most environmental use of Australia’s water resources have been seen by public policy makers as ‘wasted water’. The water that runs from rivers into the oceans or evaporates in wetlands, were viewed to have had much more productive uses. There is now recognition of the essential need for environmental flows as a public good: environmental flows help sustain vital ecosystems that benefit society and the economy, such as the fishing and tourism industry, and also help improve the quality of drinking water.

It would appear that the Basin is still very much a political football.

The Plan that is being attacked by conservatives inside and outside Parliament is required by the Water Act – and received bipartisan support – twice!

The scare campaign that is being run is simply aimed at spooking the ALP – who have proven themselves very skittish. Irrigators are using this as an opportunity to put their hand out. Over the past decade we’ve had around a 70 percent decline in water, but only a 0.12 percent decline in the economic value of irrigation production – this shows that our farmers can innovate and get more value from the water they use. Since 2007, billions have been spent on water efficiency measures, like fixing leaky pipes.

In Australia there currently exists a public mood for change on the issue of water. A recent poll showed that 80 percent of Australians agree that water should be returned to the Murray Darling Basin. Water restrictions and the drought have raised this as a priority issue for many Australians. Populated areas must be guaranteed drinking water.

Business and industry needs security and certainty of water access. Our agricultural sector must be made drought-proof and more suited to Australia’s climate. Environmental flows are needed to relieve stressed river systems. Without environmental flows keeping the Basin alive, there won’t be an agricultural industry.

Blog Action Day is coming up

Alex — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 23:48:04 +0000

This year’s Blog Action Day – on 15 October – focuses on water.

The Murray Darling Basin is in crisis. Photo by Robert Cianflone.

There aren’t as many issues that are as important as water. Over a billion people don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water. The health of our water systems are essential to human civilization – our coasts, rivers and lakes provide food, drinking water, and spur our economy through tourism and extracting natural resources. Our access to water has security implications: as arid areas face droughts the number of conflicts increase – the so-called “water wars”. Over all of this is the danger of climate change.

I’ve written quite a bit about one of the most important river systems in Australia – the Murray Darling Basin – a system that is dying. Over a million people in Australia live in the Murray Darling Basin, and it provides most of our food. It is under enormous threat from the effects of climate change – and after a decade of drought, the state I live in, Victoria, became a net importer of food for the first time in its history in 2009.

Blog Action Day was founded in 2007 by Melbourne-based internet entrepreneur group Envato – and has now grown enormously. Last year’s BAD looked at climate change – and I wrote a post about what unions could do about tackling climate change.

I’m a fan of Blog Action Day – and I hope to see lots of blogs I regularly read participating. Blog Action Day is, above all, about provoking discussion, raising important issues and changing discussions.

Desalination and water security

Alex — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 11:45:34 +0000

Water security and sustainable use are crucial elements for future development. Agricultural use represents seventy per cent of water use in Victoria and Australia, with the remainder consumed by industry and urban usage. The drought and broader environmental concerns necessitate that Victoria develop alternative water sources to traditional surface reserves and rain-fall.

Desalination is an alternative water source to ensure water supplies for Melbourne, and reduce pressure on traditional water sources.

Desalination technologies

Reverse osmosis (RO) is the preferred method in Australia (64% of national capacity) and worldwide, and is being utilised in the NSW desalination plant. This technology can be used for both salt-water desalination and waste-water reclamation (irrigation water or treated effluent).

Environmental considerations

Environmental impacts are of great concern to the public. Of particular concern are any affect desalination may have on:

Marine water quality and biota â€“ disposal of concentrated salty effluent, and traces of chemicals used in reverse osmosis process;
Vegetation â€“ potential effects of construction and operation of desalination plant on near by vegetation;
Atmospheric emissions (especially greenhouse emissions and nitrogen oxides) â€“ most greenhouse gas emissions come from construction and ongoing use, while other potentially toxic emissions originate from the RO process; and
Noise â€“ protecting amenity of nearby residents caused by high pressure pumps.

RO plants have lower energy consumptions than other desalination technology, which means less atmospheric emissions. It also converts a greater percentage of intake brine into water, which results in greater amounts of drinking water for the same volume of chemicals needed for other desalination technologies.

The reliance on fossil fuels makes renewable energy an attractive investment. Solar powered RO plants exist in rural areas in Australia.

Economic considerations

Membrane technology, especially RO is widely considered to have lower costs than other technologies, particularly in construction and production of drinkable water.

RO is economical for both large and small scale desalination. Flow rates can be increased or decreased, and plants can be expanded by adding extra modules.

Energy costs represent approximately 33% of total life-cycle costs. Commonly cited energy sources considered globally are RO plant with electric power from the local network and RO plant with solar energy. Renewable energy powered plants reduces carbon emissions caused by power generation, but increase water costs.

Conclusions

Reverse osmosis is the preferred desalination option given the drought conditions and the uncertainty of traditional water sources.

RO is the most widely used, can be utilised for salt and waste water desalination, and its environmental impact is relatively low. RO plants can also be expanded to meet future demand.