Melbourne running out of water: What to do?

[Buckeroo]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ghetto23 Treating waste water would be the best idea - apart from the stigma it creates...I recall seeing that they can make it safer than regular tap water these days...

[Ghetto23]

Quote: Originally Posted by Buckeroo Should ask the Brisbaners about this - They spent milliions on a system to drink their own piss, then it rained - the reaction by the people, hell we're not going to drink our own piss now!! Anyway, luckily the Melbourners are close to the sea. All they have to do is fill up their jug with sea water, boil it and capture the steam - plenty of water then. Cheers

[queenslander55]

Stock up on Jim Beam Purple Label and cheap cubes of coke from Woolies...

[gooner]

A 747 full of new immigrants arrives in Australia every day. Good for the economy especially as a lot of them do the crap jobs we don't want to do.

But it comes at the expense of water supplies and quality of living. Whole areas of Sydney are being designated "high density living" so you get apartments going up next to your freestanding house.

There's the solution and it's a cheap one

[Surly]

Quote: Originally Posted by Smurf1976 Now all we need is a Bass Strait pipeline. We already have a gas pipe, power cable and 3 fibre optic links across it, now we just need a water pipeline.

[Buckeroo]

Quote: Originally Posted by dbcok Kenneth Davidson (I think) made the observation that the rain band had moved 200 km to the south,which adversely affected Melbourne's rainfall (Age newspaper a few months ago) Only time will tell but seems to right so far. Where I live in SA we have had 208 mm so far for July,more than for the whole year in Melbourne. What to do-pray for rain!

[Buckeroo]

Quote: Originally Posted by Smurf1976 Not really an option in the available timeframe for a lot of reasons (I'll explain if anyone really does want to know...). But we could shift a significant amount of generation away from Vic in favour of NSW and Qld coal-fired plant very quickly. We could have it done tonight (literally tonight) quite easily from a technical perspective. Look on the positive side though, at least things are becoming consistent in Victoria. Trains don't work when it's hot. Power doesn't work when it's hot. Now there will be no water either. At least it's consistent, predictable failure to plan rather than a one-off...

[Datsun Disguise]

Quote: Originally Posted by kennas Nope, no votes. My preferred solution is the World Bank tap the mouth of the amazon and run pipes around the world. 25% of the world's fresh water runs out to sea, lets just take 1% of that to hydrate the planet. It wouldn't be hard, the fresh water from the Amazon runs out hundreds of kilometers. There's oil pipelines running the same distances about the place. There's probably a little problem with diverting some of that, but the poles supposedly melting might make up for it.

[Datsun Disguise]

Quote: Originally Posted by basilio I did get around to considering some of the drastic short term measures we could implement to save of skins. Any thoughts ?

[johenmo]

Living in regional VIC where the restrictions are nearly at the stage of not being allowed to drink water (ok sight exaggeration), I don't have much sympathy as Melbourne authorities have yet to get to the tightest level of restriction. Thank goodness for those who are being frugal or it'd be worse.

Gardens etc look a lot better in Melbourne that outside Melbourne.

But I have concern because if it gets right down to it I think Melbourne will rate before country towns in the lineup for water because of numbers. And that will see water limitations per day for country people & not for the city. It's been done overseas, and they turn the water off for a while if you use too much.

Overall, we aren't as good with water conversation as a country as we think.

[Aussiejeff]

Quote: Originally Posted by johenmo Living in regional VIC where the restrictions are nearly at the stage of not being allowed to drink water (ok sight exaggeration), I don't have much sympathy as Melbourne authorities have yet to get to the tightest level of restriction. Thank goodness for those who are being frugal or it'd be worse. Gardens etc look a lot better in Melbourne that outside Melbourne. But I have concern because if it gets right down to it I think Melbourne will rate before country towns in the lineup for water because of numbers. And that will see water limitations per day for country people & not for the city. It's been done overseas, and they turn the water off for a while if you use too much. Overall, we aren't as good with water conversation as a country as we think.

[johenmo]

Quote: Originally Posted by Aussiejeff Ohhh.... I dunno, johenmo - this watery thread is a pretty good conversation piece!

[Smurf1976]

Quote: Originally Posted by Surly Smurf, You seem to have sensible answers to these sorts of questions. Cant water and gas be sent thru the same pipelines and then separated again? Could the existing gas pipeline be used in this manner or is it too small or gas flows in opposite direction or some other technical difficulty? cheers Surly

[Smurf1976]

Quote: Originally Posted by Buckeroo There's a power station in Queensland Millmerran, which uses banks of giant air heat exchangers. The cooling water is a closed circuit system with minimal overall loss. Maybe it would take time to build these (and copious amounts of money), but why not? - for a dry continent like Australia, why would you throw all your water into the air? Cheers

[Riddick]

Ok enough of the rubbish.
Melbourne and indeed australia does not have a water supply problem. The issue is a total lack of perspective and strong enough legislation aimed at monitoring and managing water resource use. I work in sustainablility and it is evident, when looking at settlement patterns and resource usage in melbourne and Australia as a whole (I live in regional victoria), that almost no thought, no enforcement, no forward planning has been invested in the concept of sustainability, proper allocation of water resources and the pattern of future development. melbourne does not have a water problem, it has a water usage problem. Melbourne recieves plenty of water each year but uses it so incredibly poorly. I live and work on a sustainable community and our average power and water usage per person is around 0.3-0.5kwh and less than 100L. this includes all household chores. We have a usage and planning problem and the solutions are very simple, though our current political system will always fail to deliver the appropriate outcome: No more urban expansion - utilise many of the japanese ideals of high density urban housing, cut down the size of private yards and discourage grass and other non native plants that are essentialy useless and consume large quantities and even easier, install rain tanks for grey water usage and halve shower times and laundry loads. change the behaviour, solve the problem. There is no water shortage just poor management.

[Smurf1976]

Quote: Originally Posted by Riddick Ok enough of the rubbish. Melbourne and indeed australia does not have a water supply problem. The issue is a total lack of perspective and strong enough legislation aimed at monitoring and managing water resource use.

[Romano]

We sure do have a water management problem.
How many houses have large spa baths in their homes? Lots I reckon.
How many people have to do an unnecessary load of washing every day? Lots I reckon.
How many people spend way too long under the shower? Lots I reckon.

That said, it is still industry that uses the great majority of the water.

John Faine interviewed Tim Holding (water minister) this morning, and the comment was that if all Melbourne households stopped using water tomorrow, we would still have a water crisis.

[Smurf1976]

Quote: Originally Posted by Romano We sure do have a water management problem. How many houses have large spa baths in their homes? Lots I reckon. How many people have to do an unnecessary load of washing every day? Lots I reckon. How many people spend way too long under the shower? Lots I reckon. That said, it is still industry that uses the great majority of the water.

[basilio]

Quote: Gas flow is from Victoria to Tasmania with the pipeline coming ashore near Bell Bay (near the mouth of the Tamar River north of Launceston). 100% of all natural gas used in Tas comes via this pipe, there being no local gas production and no other pipeline. Cost of the pipeline was $430 million (from memory) and it was completed in late 2002. This cost included onshore pipelines from Bell Bay to Hobart (250km) and across the north coast of the state to Port Latta (where an iron ore processing plant is located). So pipelines can certainly be built across Bass Strait that's for sure. How much it would cost for an adequate water pipe I really don't know. But consider this: Tasmania, with 0.5 million people, has put in the gas pipe and electricity cables in recent years at a combined cost of $1.2 billion. Whilst that was all privately funded, it is ultimately underwritten largely by state government entities. Now, Victoria has roughly 10 times the popluation that Tas has. So I think Vic ought to be able to find a way of financing such a pipe even if it ends up costing a few $ billion. Maybe it would take the next 10 years to pay for it, but surely that's got to beat having no water in Melbourne.

[Smurf1976]

Quote: Originally Posted by basilio The water pipeline from Tassie to Victoria has been canvassed and championed by Ken Davidson for at least a couple of years. It seems to make very good engineering and financial sense. But somehow it didn't fit the present Governments ideas for a desal plant. In the short term the tanker proposition seems the most practical. But I'm sure it would need planning and engineering works that wouldn't happen in a few weeks. [/b]