State’s flood crisis demands rethink of water infrastructure - REINSW

State’s flood crisis demands rethink of water infrastructure

Water policy must protect regional communities in flood and drought –REINSW

12 March 2012

The state’s peak real estate body is calling for an urgent rethink of water infrastructure needs and planning, as the cost of the state’s flood crisis continues to be counted.

The REINSW says the same communities which will be devastated by cuts to water allocations are now suffering in times of flood because of the same fundamental problem – an absence of necessary water infrastructure.

“As we see floodwaters sweeping towns across NSW, it is hard to ignore the fact that much needed and valuable water is being lost because of a lack of infrastructure”, said REINSW President Christian Payne.

“Further, the uncontrolled flows of flood are devastating communities many of which are the same places set to suffer under long-term cuts to water allocations when the flooding eventually eases.

“The Murray-Darling Basin Plan will cause significant harm to the very same communities that are now facing one of the worst flood crisis in many years, yet when the waters recede it is likely the debate will focus again only on cutting water entitlements to farmers.

“It is clear that the water debate needs to extend to look at the adequacy of the existing water storage infrastructure and what needs to be built to take advantage of high rainfall events such as this.

“It is critical this takes place before this flood event is forgotten by the Federal Government and the axe returns water allocations.

The REINSW would urge an immediate review of water infrastructure to ensure that enough is being done to support primary producing communities by capturing precious water resources.

“Government shouldn’t be forgetting the fact that we have a lack of water in Australia simply because we have images of flooding on TV screens and in newspapers.

“We should be having exactly the same debate about water allocation not just in times of drought but also in times of flood.

“And that debate needs to focus not just on conserving water resources by cutting allocations but also what infrastructure is needed to better capture water in times of flood.

“It is only now that we can see just how much valuable water is lost because of a lack of storage infrastructure.

“Further, many regional and rural towns are unnecessarily exposed to flooding risk because additional water storage infrastructure is not used to control those flows.

“Unfortunately to date, the debate on water allocations has been about what can be taken away from regional communities, not what can be given to them to support them in both times of drought and flood.

“It is incumbent upon the Federal Government to look at what additional water storage and other infrastructure facilities are needed to support regional communities before they return to the same mantra of cutting water allocations to our primary producers.

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