The ”water wise” rules that save 19 billion litres of drinking water a year in Sydney would save as much as Tillegra Dam promised to store, says an independent report.
Retrofitting homes with water-efficient showerheads and toilets, installing rainwater tanks and increased use of recycled water on farms, parks and golf clubs would cost an estimated $44 million - one-tenth of the cost of the Tillegra proposal.
The Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology, Sydney, took the actual water saving achieved by Sydney Water in its demand management and water conservation programs and applied it to the Hunter.
It found implementing measures similar to those in Sydney would cost $44 million over 15 years and meet the demand for water, even with a growing population, until 2050. Based on the Sydney experience, it would cost 40¢ per thousand litres to save 423 gigalitres of water between 2010 and 2050.
”The alternate strategy is less than one-tenth of the cost of the $477 million Tillegra Dam,” said the director of the ISF and the report co-author, Dr Simon Fane.
Hunter Water, a state-owned corporation, had argued that the dam was needed to meet the water needs of a population projected to rise by 160,000 people by 2031. Internal planning documents had revealed the dam would have reduced the chance of water restrictions to one in 1250 years - 50 times the risk used by other Australian water authorities.
Belinda Fairbrother from the Wilderness Society NSW, which commissioned the research, said the decision to scrap the dam was momentous. ”By taking into account all the evidence and rejecting the costly, unnecessary and environmentally destructive dam, the Williams River is one step closer to being protected for the long term.”
The institute criticised Hunter Water for discouraging efficient water use and recycling by giving industry a discounted rate for using very large amounts.
It also noted restrictions readily accepted by residents in Sydney and the central coast have not been in place in the Hunter since the 1980s.
