Labor Govt reveals plans to drink stormwater......20 years ago

17/03/10 11:00 am

A Sunday Mail article from 1991 reveals that the then Labor Government was planning to introduce stormwater into the mains system for drinking.

The article, p. 29 of the Jan. 27th edition of the Mail says for a cost of $10.2 million:

“Adelaide may soon be drinking its own stormwater under an ambitious scheme to recycle millions of litres of water which normally run out to sea each year.” and

“The Water Resources Minister, Ms Lenehan, said the use of cleansed stormwater, which would be stored in underground aquifers or injected straight into the mains system, could reduce dependency on River Murray Water.”

Yet the current Labor Premier Mike Rann said yesterday on ABC Radio that doing this would be a ‘very perilous and irresponsible course’, a position backed by other current Labor Ministers including Jay Weatherill and John Hill.

"How incredibly frustrating it is that we are having the same old debate 20 years on,” said Greens MLC Mark Parnell, “even the spin hasn’t changed a bit.”

"It’s sad to see intelligent, well-educated men turning into scaremongers in the name of political expediency.

"What a pity we didn't invest in capturing and recycling stormwater back then. $10 million is a lot cheaper than a $1.5 billion energy hungry desalination plant,” he said.

“The 1991 report is obviously something the Liberals would prefer not to remember, because it scuttles the idea that it’s their idea, and Labor don’t want to remember that nearly 20 years ago they were trying to deliver genuinely progressive water policy,” said Dr Paul Downton, noted urban ecologist and Greens candidate for Cheltenham, who discovered the archived article in his shed.

“That leaves the Greens as the only party who has been consistent in its policy focus on securing South Australia’s water security in the most sustainable and efficient way possible,” he said.

“Every time history repeats itself, the price goes up,” Mr Parnell concluded.

The Greens water election platform can be found at: www.sa.greens.org.au

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