Water that doesn't cost the Earth

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The Greens believe we can have a safe and secure water supply that doesn't cost the earth. The provision of clean, adequate and affordable water is essential for a healthy society. Governments have fundamentally failed to understand the nature of our water systems and prepare for the future. As a result, Adelaide is facing a water crisis. The River Murray, our traditional water source for Adelaide is in a critical state, with unsustainable levels of extraction resulting in not enough water flowing to the Lower lakes and Coorong. Global warming will only make this worse. The Government sees desalination as the 'silver bullet' solution, but this technology is energy hungry, expensive and risky to the marine environment. Meanwhile, millions of litres of silt laden stormwater that falls from our skies along with nutrient laden wastewater are flushed out to sea every year, killing our seagrasses, instead of being diverted, captured, filtered or purified and stored underground in an extensive system of underground aquifers. The household price of water is scheduled to rise to pay for the desalination plant. Yet, because a large percentage of household water bills are made up of fixed, property-based charges, there is still little incentive for behaviour change through price increases.

Specific measures the Greens will take:

• Stormwater: Undertake an urgent, high priority assessment of aquifer storage capacity under the Adelaide plains; major investment in, and immediate implementation of a metropolitan-wide stormwater harvesting and filtration program in partnership with local governments and SA Water. Priority areas include the Airport, Oaklands Park, Cheltenham, Mitchell Park and Camden Park; change the Development Act to ensure the good water capture sites are preserved in new developments.


• Household Restrictions: Give control back to households by moving from the current system of limited restriction of outside watering, to an 'allocation' based system where each household is given the freedom to use a set amount of water outside or inside their homes wherever and whenever they like.


• Demand management: Commence a major demand management program for industrial & commercial users, including top tier pricing and mandatory efficiency measures for large volume businesses; provide better information to households on their water use (e.g. comparative use on water bills and easier to read meters); increase incentives and support for water saving measures.


• Desalination: Continue to regard reverse osmosis seawater desalination as a last resort option for Adelaide, not a first resort; ensure the Port Stanvac desal plant only proceeds if the following conditions are met: no negative marine environmental impact; powered by 100% new renewable energy; 100% Government owned and controlled; much greater investment first in alternative water security options; no expansion from 50GL to 100GL capacity.


• Pricing: Shift water pricing from fixed sewerage and property-based charges to a charge based on water used to encourage conservation; ensure concessions to low income households continue, matched with practical support to reduce mains water use; continue 'postage stamp' pricing across the state; apply user pays and polluter pays principles to the pricing of water, including progressive, tier-based increases for large users.


• River Murray: Urgently wean Adelaide off the Murray; stop the construction of the Wellington Weir; scrap the proposed Mt Bold reservoir expansion; ensure environmental flows continue to critical wetlands, especially the Coorong.


• Rainwater: Encourage households to install and plumb rainwater into their homes by: preserving current incentives for households to install and connect tanks; keeping rainwater capture outside any water restriction or household allocation regime; give the option of allowing household to defer the sometimes prohibitive up-front cost of installing tanks by giving the option of making payments through their quarterly water bill.


• Mt Lofty Catchments and Groundwater: Prescribe the quaternary aquifer under the Adelaide plain and meter use of all residential and commercial users; protect Mount Lofty catchments from excessive development; investigate the option to use Adelaide plains aquifers to store excess water flowing into Mt Lofty catchment reservoirs.


• Waste water re-use: Require SA Water to comply with Adelaide Coastal Waters Study recommended reduction in wastewater dumping within 5 years (75% reduction from 2003 levels) through sewer mining, greywater recycling, reticulation from treatment plants to big water end users and second pipes into new developments; prioritise reverse osmosis treatment of waste water over sea water desalination.


• Water Management: Ensure there is a single Government agency and a single Minister with responsibility for all water planning in the state; transform SA Water from a water supply and selling agency into a water conservation agency by de-prioritising the need for SA Water to return a profit to Government and setting specific water conservation targets; ensure public ownership and control of major water resources and infrastructure including a return of the operations of United Water to public hands once the outsourcing contract expires in 2011; investigate the option of allowing responsible outside bodies (e.g. Salisbury Council) to supply water through the mains water system.


• Urban Design: Increase awareness of flood risk to individual properties; require stringent standards for water sensitive urban design in all future developments and incentives to retro-fit current housing stock; water permeable footpaths and paving to encourage water flow to street trees.

click here to download the printable version in PDF format (103 kB).