Fact: One tonne of oil costs more than $640 AU. Fact: One tonne of water costs city users about $1 AU per tonne and irrigators less than 5cents AU per tonne. Fact: One kilo of beef takes about 25 tonnes of water to produce. Fact: These guys leave the dunnypipe dreamers for dead in the insanity stakes.
Billy
AM - Exporting Tasmanian water suggested as solution to shortage
[This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2006/s1758491.htm]
AM - Monday, 9 October , 2006 08:29:00 Reporter: Tim Jeanes TONY EASTLEY: As debate continues on how to solve the Australian mainland's water crisis, it's proposed that Tasmania could help come to the rescue.
The suggestion is that fresh water be shipped from the island state.
It's claimed the process would be cheaper and more environmentally friendly than desalination plants currently on the drawing board.
Tim Jeanes reports.
TIM JEANES: A scan through Tasmania's rainfall figures shows it can get very wet.
Rainfall in one year at the Lake Margaret Dam was more than 4,500 millimetres.
In one day at Cullenswood, more than 350 millimetres fell, that's about two-thirds of Adelaide's annual rainfall.
So, let's use such resources for the mainland, says Robert Dane.
ROBERT DANE: Taking water that is being wasted, a resource that is flowing into the ocean, and selling that water to parts of the world in a flexible and easily financible way to places that are desperately needing water.
TIM JEANES: Doctor Dane is the CEO of Sydney-based Solar Sailor, a company which has former prime minister Bob Hawke as its chairman.
Its concept is to use solar and wind powered supertankers to transport water from water-rich regions, to regions in need.
Dr Dane is planning to discuss the issue with the Tasmanian Government in November.
He says proposals for the mainland, such as desalination plants, bring myriad environmental problems, and he says the flexibility of using aqua-tankers is part of a cost-effective process for destinations such as Sydney.
ROBERT DANE: The use of solar and wind power would, for example, on the run from Tasmania to Sydney, reduce the raw shipping costs from about $1 per tonne down to about 80 cents a tonne, and the cost of a tonne of water being made in Sydney from desalination is currently being quoted at $1.16 a tonne.
TIM JEANES: Well, if it's so good on paper, why isn't it being done in reality?
ROBERT DANE: Well, I think that there's a lot of momentum towards desalination, but it is a viable option.
TIM JEANES: Can you see it happening then? I mean, can you see a day when in five, 10 years' time, for example, Sydney, maybe Perth, is getting its water from a place like Tasmania?
ROBERT DANE: Absolutely. If Tasmania has an excess amount of water, and my reading of climate change is that the weather patterns are moving south, therefore the water that used to fall on southern mainland Australia is now falling in Bass Strait, I envisage a point at which the cost of water, for a tonne of water to be made in Sydney, it will be cheaper to bring in beautiful fresh water from Tasmania by ship than it will be to make that water from salt water in Sydney.
TIM JEANES: The idea is being embraced by those such as Tasmania's West Coast Mayor, Darryl Gerrity, who has one caveat. That is, that a water audit is undertaken to ensure Tasmania isn't left short of the precious commodity.
DARRYL GERRITY: If there's excess, by all means export it. It's more money for Tasmania, and it's assisting someone else alleviate a problem.
TONY EASTLEY: Tasmania's West Coast Mayor, Darryl Gerrity, ending that report from Tim Jeanes.
