One Nation (NSW Division) Media Release - 27/2/2007
COALITION AND LABOR BOTH GET IT WRONG ON WATER
As usual the Coalition and Labor have both got it wrong on the water issue.
We don't need a desalination plant and we don't need recycled water. Both
of these take enormous amounts of electricity, and we will go on paying
for them for ever.
For the same result and initial cost we could give every house in Sydney
rainwater tanks.
Assuming there are 1,000,000 houses in Sydney, and each has 100 square
metres of roof, if all the rain that fell on the roof was collected,
Sydney's annual rainfall being 1.2 metres, the roofs would collect 120
cubic metres of water per house which is 120,000 litres and
120,000,000,000 litres a year from 1,000,000 roofs. This is
disregarding the water-harvesting capacity of all public and commercial
buildings.
The desal plant produces 125,000,000 litres a day or 45,625,000,000 litres
a year, less than half of this.
Allowing $2000 for each house as a cost of installing the tanks this
amounts to $2bn, about the same as the desalination plant.
But unlike the desalination plant, once a rainwater tank is in place,
apart from minor maintenance or the cost of running a pump, there is
nothing more to pay.
Of course, no matter what the greenies might tell us, there are still
plenty of rivers we could dam anyway.
New South Wales voters should ask what's in it for the major parties to
foist on us such uneconomic and ill-advised options.
Statement issued February 27th, 2007 on behalf of One Nation by Bob Vinnicombe Publicity Officer
For more information contact Bob Vinnicombe 0407949963 / (02) 96454910
See One Nation's Water Policy