RE: "Council to bring in a ban on hoses", February 13.
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MANY observers and agencies are now focusing on climate change and responding to that, which is fine, and I support the need for a tougher stand on greenhouse gas emissions.
However, for Australia and particularly regional Australia to have a sustainable future, government at all levels need to focus on water resources.
They need to divert infrastructure spend to massively increase water storage in existing catchments and distribute those waters to regional centres of population by piping it cross country - much like South Australia, Texas and countries in the Middle East do.
IN OTHER NEWS:
For example, the current Snowy Mountains Scheme upgrade should be stepped up to at least double the storage capacity, giving it the capacity to provide back-up to regional centres in southern and central NSW and Victoria.
Similarly, in Queensland, where floodwaters on the coast result in outflows to the ocean many times greater than the water storage in the region.
We need to think long term in protecting our inland populations from becoming unsustainable.
The factors driving us toward a long-term water crisis are not reversible.
At best, greenhouse emissions policies will only slow the rate at which we move toward the point of unviability in "the bush".
We need to ramp up the pressure on government at all levels; this is a national, state and local issue and the responsibility needs to be shouldered at all levels.