The O’Farrell government has been accused of continuing to cut world-class water efficiency programs to increase the value of Sydney’s desalination plant before privatisation.
The government and its predecessor have axed nine water saving programs worth $6 million, which would have provided a much cheaper option than the plant, the Greens say.
The NSW Greens MP John Kaye said the government, which plans to privatise the $1.89 billion plant, which produces water at a cost of 62¢ per 1000 litres, was “fattening it up for sale”.
”Water efficiency has become collateral damage in the game of short-term political advantage,” Dr Kaye said.
”Water savings programs that would reduce household bills and protect the environment have been dumped to justify the construction and privatisation of the desalination plant.
”Cutting water savings on the driest continent can only be about boosting the stocks of the desalination plant.”
The director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology, Sydney, Stuart White, said construction of the plant in Kurnell was a premature, ”foolish decision”.
“We don’t want to lose world-class water efficiency programs which would have reduced both the costs and the environmental impacts of water supply in Sydney, the Illawarra and the Blue Mountains,” he said.
Professor White, who helped develop the Iemma government’s metropolitan water plan, said the plant contract was signed in mid-2007 when dam levels were at 55 per cent and rising.
The former government said the plant would only be built if dam levels fell to 30 per cent, but with an election looming and dam levels at 34 per cent, it called for tenders.
Professor White said Sydney Water had led Australia’s development of water efficiency programs, which he said were ”still the first and cheapest option we should be looking at”.
”We should not be locked into operation and continuity of the desalination plant,” Professor White said.
“We need to be mature and robust enough to accept that the decision to build it was wrong. Now we are locked into a foolish decision and axing the very successful and very low-cost water efficiency programs.”
Axed programs included those which provided water savings kits and rebates for dual-flush toilets, hot water circulators, rainwater tanks and water-efficient washing machines.
The Minister for Finance and Services, Greg Pearce, said the government was committed to water efficiency.
”The extensive range of rebates, offers and programs have already achieved significant and permanent water savings - over 100 billion litres of drinking water every year for Sydney Water alone,” he said.
”Latest figures also show that water usage is below the Sydney Water target of 329 litres per person per day.
”The government position in relation to the desalination plant remains unchanged since before the state election.”
