Page 3757 - Week 12 - Thursday, 22 November 2007
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do not think that a blanket ban on outdoor water use is the answer. I think that should be a last resort. I think gardens are really important to our physical environment, not just as a climate change mitigation factor. In the future we may actually have policies that encourage the production of food in our backyards because, as some people have said, climate change should be tackled on a wartime basis.
MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Business and Economic Development, Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Minister for the Environment, Water and Climate Change, Minister for the Arts) (4.33): I am very pleased to contribute to this matter of public importance—Canberra’s water supply management. As previous speakers have indicated, it is one of the most significant issues facing Canberra, the region, the basin, indeed Australia, and if one wants to extend beyond that, the rest of the world.
We have, over the last five to six years, done a significant amount of work in relation to water and water security. We developed a package, a policy in think water, act water, as well as targets and the underlying philosophy in relation to water usage—a recognition of the scarcity of the resource and of its value and the need for us to respond as a community in respect of our water usage.
We have pursued a number of initiatives in that regard. We have set targets for the recycling of water and targets for a reduction in the use of potable water. As the drought has bitten over the last three to four years, the government, particularly through Actew, in addition to its strategy of Think water, act water, has responded with some significant upgrades of the supply infrastructure. I think that has slipped through the public consciousness and the consciousness of many.
It has not been mentioned today, but in the last three or four years Actew has invested somewhere in the order of $100 million across the board in water and sewerage infrastructure. That is a very significant investment in our infrastructure. That has been done through the development of a water treatment plant in the first instance at Mount Stromlo—which I think cost somewhere in the order of $50 million—to ensure that all water within the Cotter catchment could be treated to Australian drinking standards.
Until the fire, which resulted in the destruction of this water treatment work, we did not have the capacity to treat our daily water needs or requirements to Australian drinking standards. We now do through the construction at Mount Stromlo of a treatment plant costing somewhere in the order of $55 million or $56 million. We have upgraded the water treatment plant at Googong to ensure that we can provide a similar level of treatment to Googong water. Actew have constructed a new pumping arrangement utilising submersible pumps—a significant exercise—on the Murrumbidgee River at the Cotter. Without those submersible pumps and without our capacity to take water directly from the Murrumbidgee River our situation would be more dire, particularly this year, than otherwise.
We have invested significantly, at a cost of between $16 million and $20 million, in ensuring the capacity to transfer water from the Cotter catchment to the Googong dam by reversing existing pipes, as well as providing significant additional piping,
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