There is an alternative aquifer solution. While draining the Kangaloon Aquifer will only provide Sydney with only 7 days water (see Fact Sheets: "Only 7 days water supply"), it could take 7 years for the aquifer to recharge.  The Botany aquifer, which is closer to users, would supply more water because less would be lost through wastage and it could be recharged with stormwater and recycled effluent in days. 

"No recycled effluent. . . "

Minister Campbell has rejected this proposal on the grounds that Sydneysiders are not prepared to drink recycled effluent, when the Minister is well aware and has failed to inform the urban population that they are already drinking recycled sewage from a treatment plant in Bowral which in turn flows into Warragamba Dam – yet another example of Iemma Ministers being loose with the truth about things.

Pumping 45 billion litres of water over 3 years from an aquifer with geological characteristics of fractured sandstone, as is the case in the Upper Nepean, has never been attempted with so little scientific study.  Minister Debus and the SCA are getting into uncharted territory and are cutting corners to fulfil the Premier’s promise to Sydneysiders that Highland water will be flowing into Sydney’s dams early this year.

Before Minister Debus even formed the CRG, the 4000 strong International Association of Hydogeologists (IAH) warned the Government about the potential risks in the Kangaloon borefield plan, in fact they rejected the proposal outright.  In line with what seems to be a Government culture of not telling the truth about things, Minister Debus did not inform the CRG of the IAH recommendation, they found out after their submission had been sent to the Minister.  Only at the beginning of this year did the CRG discover that the Minister has rejected its proposal outright.  

Inadequate supply preparations

Apart from fiddling at the edges on the demand side and identifying the so called ‘non rain dependent’ supply side options, the NSW Governments water policy for the best part of 12 years has been to 'pray for rain'.  Bob Carr's 'no new dams' speech in Oct 2004 confirmed this policy; in it there were no 'big ideas' to secure Sydney's supply side water future.  The Government is well aware that Sydney's dams were constructed to supply 3.1 million people,  Sydney's current population is 4.2 million, is projected to increase to 5 million, and the plans to supply the extra 2 million people have gone missing. 

Not only has the Government not prepared adequate supply programs for an expanding urban population, it has failed to plan for drought which is a permanent feature of Australian weather patterns.  A 125 megalitre desalination plant that will only supply 350,000 people and the Premier’s promise of ‘massive recycling plants to secure Sydney’s water future’ that only apply to Greenfield and industrial sites are hardly the ‘big ticket’ programs likely to make Sydney self-sufficient in its water supply and usage.

Unsustainable usage

Sydney is living on borrowed time, and the Government’s pre-election attempts dupe the urban population into believing they are doing the right thing in regard to water usage is just another piece of spin to avoid a voter backlash if the truth about the Governments bungling water management becomes widely known. ‘It's a case of hope we won’t get found out until after the election.  

Current usage in Sydney is unsustainable and will continue to be unsustainable until 'big ticket' supply side projects come on stream and world class demand side programs become operational.  Praying for rain won't work any more.  

One of the more important statistics about Sydney's water consumption that is not being addressed is per capita usage.  An average consumer drinks about 5 litres of water a day in various forms, Europeans get through about 150 litres a day; the average Australian manages to push this to about 343* to 350 litres a head (in August Sydney people were doing better than this and using 403** litres a day).  Goulburn is down to 150 litres a day, as is the Central Coast and many country towns are facing a similar fate.

Take just personal showering which makes up 33 per cent of personal water usage.  Energy Australia research shows that the average time taken in a shower by females is 7.27 minutes and 6.99 minutes for men.  At weekends this rises to 8.08 minutes for women and 7.34 minutes for men.  The top activity is by women who spend 10.47 minutes showering and shaving their legs.  

Country people living on tank water and taking a shower, turn the water on and off while they soap and rinse and would have the ‘shower on with the water running’ for 1.30 to 2 minutes. If 4.2 million people in Sydney even cut their shower time to 3 minutes, adopted country water usage habits and learnt how to conserve water, there would be no need for the Government’s bungling attempt to bolster supplies for only 7 days from the Kangaloon Aquifer and over-extract water from the Shoalhaven River.  

Paying the price for inept planning

The Labor candidate for Goulburn Robert Parker opposes extracting water from the Kangaloon Aquifer: ‘Not one drop of water should leave that aquifer until Sydney residents are on the same water restrictions as Goulburn – i.e. 150 litres a day or a per capita cut in Sydney of 193 litres from the current 343 litres.  Parker’s solution maybe a bit harsh and no doubt he has been told not to embarrass Minister Campbell again with such logic.   

 After the election, no amount of Kangaloon Aquifer water or water diverted from the Shoalhaven River will allow 4.2 million Sydneysiders to continue to use 343 litres a day, 5 litres of which will be drunk and 338 litres flushed into the ocean – unless the Government’s prayers come true and it rains!  

Sydney faces a critical water crisis, 92.8 per cent of the State is in drought and contrary to NSW Government spin; Sydneysiders can't be cocooned from the harsh realities of water shortages. This crisis is not of the urban population's making; it is of the NSW Government's making, and Sydeysiders and their country cousins are being made to pay the price for 12 years of inept Government water planning and management.