The News Review:

- Think conservation before water supplies kick the bucket
- Beattie defends recycled water against ‘scare mongers’
- Let not the flow become a trickle

Think conservation before water supplies kick the bucket
The Age – Jan 28, 2007
ALMOST 20 years ago, an ecologist from the University ofNew England, Harry Recher, described the degradation of Australia’swater resources as the “great unseen, unspoken and unrecognisedthreat to our survival … the degradation of our watersthreatens our capacity to feed ourselves. ” Recher’s warning wentlargely unheard — and almost entirely unheeded. Five years ago, a very different person — Melbournepackaging billionaire Richard Pratt — recognised the sameproblem, and, putting his money on the line, came up with a plan todramatically cut the amount of water lost. Unlike Recher, Pratt washeard. But like the ecologist, his pleas went unheeded.

Beattie defends recycled water against ‘scare mongers’
abc.net.au – Jan 28, 2007
“So we’ve decided to cancel the polls, so there’ll be no vote. “I apologise to the people of South East Queensland for breaking a commitment, but that was in less serious circumstances. Mr Beattie says he is confident drinking water supplies will last until the water recycling facilities are built. He says Government research shows 78 per cent of residents were planning to vote “yes” in the plebiscite. Liberal leader Dr Bruce Flegg says he is not surprised. “The Government has bowed to Opposition calls to stop the farce and stop the waste of $10 million,” he said. Many local councils have supported Mr Beattie’s decision, but former Toowoomba mayor Clive Berghofer says the food export industry is now in danger.

Let not the flow become a trickle
Hindu – Jan 28, 2007
in, the site of the Ministry of Urban Development. In terms of water supply, just about one in five (77 of 393) Class I cities are fully covered, writes Maithili Ramachandran in one of the essays included in `Keeping the Water Flowing,’ from Academic Foundation (. academicfoundation. academicfoundation…
Distressingly again, among these cities, there is wide variation in quantity supplied, measured in `lpcd’ or litres per capita per day: from as low as 9 to 584 lpcd! What about Class II towns, which number more than 400? One in two receive less than 100 lpcd. “Among the many factors that influence the supply of water are water tariffs,” says Ramachandran. “Studies show that under the current system of water tariffs, even middle and upper income households in urban India are subsidised. Tariffs are currently fixed with affordability as the overriding priority, and cost recovery is not in the reckoning at all. She cites a 2002 work by Usha Raghupati and Vivien Foster, `A Scorecard for India’ to note that tariff structures are generally unfair to industrial users and metered customers. “India does poorly on the efficiency aspect of tariff setting, too; half of all consumers’ consumption is not metered at all.