Australia is the driest continent on earth.
Yet we invest tiny dollars in water even though we are aware that Australia has the potential to become the food bowl of the world.
Unaccountably, we are willing to risk only miserable dollars in this enormous trading opportunity.
The reason has always been clear.
80% of voters live in metropolitan areas. This enables politicians to safely ignore the bush and still retain power thus ensuring that money flows to where voters are.
For at least a century, it has been clear to water engineers that, during ‘The Wet’, excess water from tropical rivers can be diverted down normally dry rivers to bring new life to the great agricultural and pastoral plains of the Inland.
The initial capital cost will be the equivalent of the money that Australians spend annually on gambling, ie, 15 billion dollars.
There are no excuses for failing to take action.
Inactivity on water investment is simply political cowardice, combined with negligence and a total lack of vision, plus a mortal fear of losing power because voters will be angry that the money was not spent on handouts for them.
While we dither, the rapidly growing middle class of Asian nations, who now number more than 350 million people, are demanding better quality food. Canada and the United States will fill the void while Australia sleeps.
Last year a good friend of mine, John Thompson, an experienced bushman and environmentalist, worked with me to draw up a practical water plan that you should read. It shows how a constant stream of fresh water can go down the river systems all the way to Adelaide and Lake Eyre with the aid of a few short canals and can be viewed here on my website, everaldcompton.com.
If you would like to chat to John, send an email addressed to him at compton@everaldatlarge.com. That way we will both read it.
John and I have been lobbying politicians hard about water. They smile, pat us on the back, tell us we are good boys and then do nothing. Not even the current perilous drought moves them.
Join us in making an issue of it once and for all.
When it is all said and done we know that, without water, life is impossible.
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Yours at Large
Everald Compton
Hi Everald
There have been several major water investment projects in Australia that were recognised worldwide. The Snowy Hydro and Perth to Kalgoorlie (500km) fresh water pipeline are two wonderful examples that continue to have enormous economic benefits today. Both had detractors, but strong political will eventually prevailed.
Your support for moving water from the Gulf country south is complemented by a similarly innovative idea to bring fresh water from the Ord River, that would normally flow to the sea during the Wet, south to Kalgoorlie. There would then be a contra-flow from east to west to Perth which would guarantee drought-proofing that growing city forever. An even more ambitious proposal envisages a pipeline extension from Kalgoorlie to Adelaide.
However, in order to garner political support I am starting to believe that you need something catastrophic to occur first (e.g terrorist attack in Martin Place). That is to say one of our major cities needs to run out of water, or come close to it, for 5 to 10 years in a row with associated crippling water restrictions. Alternatively, you need an idea that is simply irresistible politically because it’s time has come (e.g. the NDIS) where politicians sensed the political wind and realised that an advanced and humane country must protect the disabled, no matter the financial cost.
I wish you well Everald in this vital and important work.
Kind regards
Lloyd
Hello Everald please ask John to forward a copy of the study. Thanks Garth Morrison Editor GoSeeAustralia.com.au
If we had a system of Citizen Initiated Referendums (CIR) we could at the very least get this topic on the agenda.
If ALL activists, commentators and just sensible people concentrated all their effort on to this one issue, we could attain it. And then we would also have a mechanism with which to tackle all the other issues plaguing our great nation.
Everald, My head is still spinning from reading your e-mail and trying to take on board the Multi subjects you address I will comment on Water
Water: Sack cloth and Ashes”We are the Driest Continent in the World” 92% of the Earth’s Water is in the Oceans.We are an Island Continent with access to 3 of the Worlds Largest Oceans,so we are Better placed than most nations for ACCESS to Water. To protect our Major cities water supply against droughts 4 of our States have installed and are Operating Desalination Plants. At Kurnell There is an Operating Desal Plant. The Ocean is not just source of Water but a source of Hydrogen, a Fuel that WA ran its Buses on for several years. At Kurnell there is a vacated industrial Cite (The Shutdown Lubricating Oil Refinery owned by Caltex} and I have suggested to Chevron /Caltex that this would be an excellent Site to Experiment on he Recovery of Hydrogen from Sea water. Hydrogen is an IDEAL Fuel for Cities and Pollution as Hydrogen is converted back to Water in an internal combustion engine.
Keep up the Good Work Everald.I was on your group “Over Governed and Under Planned”and appreciate your input to our country and our Society
Sincerely,
Harry Babbage
Hi Everald,
I still have the water project map on my wall here at work and I point it out to as many as I can. Here in Walgett, we could do with some water. No crops for the past three years, the Government have just given us (council) a grant to sink another bore as the town is running out of water. Walgett is located at he junction of two rivers, the Barwon and the Namoi. The Namoi is dry and the Barwon is struggling, so any project, such as this one of yours and Johns, will always get support. Without water we don’t survive.
keep up the good work
cheers
David Callander
Good to hear from you Everald and hope you and Helen are both well. WE may be the driest continent but if we husbanded all the water that falls upon our island, and treated the water we use for domestic consumption to potable levels we would solve most of our water shortages. I’m sure you sent me the plan you refer to linking up rivers and creating dams and it makes utter sense. If the Israeli’s lived here they would have already greened a great deal of our land. A sensible government would see this as a major longterm infrastructure project and at least part fund it by offering superannuants bonds or shares with a rate of interest that was say 2% over inflation and guaranteed. Regards carlo
Carlo Bongarzoni
Carlo Bongarzoni Associates P/L
9 Russell Street
Clontarf NSW 2093
T/F 9948 8975; 0410 335 523
bongarzoni@optusnet.com.au
Hi Everald. An exciting idea. Your website simply says email John for a copy of the study. John, would you please email me a copy? Thanks Ian Wood Mittagong _____