2 May 2007News.com.au
Our nine main reservoirs are now just 29.9 per cent full, the lowest total level since the Thomson Dam was completed in 1983.
It is only the second time dams have fallen below 30 per cent since May 29, 1968, when Victoria was recovering from the 1967-68 drought.
Melbourne is on stage 3a water restrictions, limiting people to manual watering on two mornings a week, but the Government has no plan to move to stage 4 restrictions, saying only that it will reassess the situation before August.
A backlash over this week's $136 million Budget allocation for water projects -- $24 million less than last year -- has the State Government under pressure.
But Premier Steve Bracks said yesterday this was only the start: his Government would decide between four options for Melbourne's water future this year.
These include a desalination plant, harvesting stormwater from the Yarra, piping water over the Great Divide from the Goulburn Murray irrigation district, and piping recycled water from the Eastern Treatment Plant at Carrum to Gippsland for use at Latrobe Valley power stations, thereby saving drinking water.
Mr Bracks said he would not speculate on which would go ahead. The Government would examine the detail of the projects "very closely to come up with the best outcome".
But the Water Services Association of Australia, representing big water authorities, said at least one major project to boost water supplies could already have been under way.
"There's an argument they could have done a lot more . . . a lot earlier," executive director Ross Young said.
"The north-south pipeline would be the first one you would start with."
And Opposition water spokeswoman Louise Asher said the Government was negligent, and it would be at least two years before any project could be up and running.
"The Premier identified water as a key issue in 2002, but they have not done anything that's major. Everything's just chipping away at the edges," she said.
Prolonged drought and record low inflows have seen Melbourne's water supplies plunge dramatically in the past 10 years.
In early May 1997, storages were at 81.98 per cent of capacity. By May 2002, they were at 51.7 per cent, and on this day last year 49.7 per cent.
But a spokesman for Water Minister John Thwaites said there was no reason to panic.
"The Government has a plan to secure Melbourne's water supplies in the short, medium and long term, and we're implementing that plan," he said. "Melburnians have responded very well to our water-saving campaign.
"Storages would have been much lower without the 22 per cent savings per person compared to use in the 1990s," he said.
He said recent months had been historically dry: flows into catchments were down by as much as 40 per cent on previous record lows.
Melbourne Water spokesman Ben Pratt said the low-water mark had "no practical effect on the management of the water supply system".
"However, we of course closely monitor storage levels and water quality should our storages continue to fall," he said.
It is unlikely storages will receive a major boost this month: the weather bureau predicts only a 55 per cent chance of above-average rainfall.
National Climate Centre climatologist Blair Trewin said April rainfall in Melbourne's catchment areas was again below average.
"It's a fairly neutral outlook for rainfall in May, but as least it's not leaning toward below average, like most of last year," he said.
"Even normal rainfall would be a significant improvement."
Mr Young said the Government needed to rethink its policy on environmental flows as domestic demand put more pressure on shrinking resources.
"In a drought this severe, you need to look at every part of your system to ensure cities have reliable supplies of water," Mr Young said.
"If the Thomson Dam wasn't there, would there be low water in the river anyway? Environmental flows should mirror what would be happening in a drought."
The most advanced of the four options is the plan for the Eastern Treatment Plant.
A study has found the proposal to be feasible and a business case study is being done to assess its cost, estimated at $2.4 billion.
The proposal would stop the sewage outfall at Gunnamatta, directing the water through 135km of pipes to Gippsland, where it would cool power stations.
It is expected to free up 139,000 billion litres of drinking water, of which about 100,000 billion would go into Melbourne's water supply.
Climate change modelling predicts continuing rainfall deficiencies in southeast Australia.
Government figures, based on present low flows into reservoirs, predict a 109,000 megalitre shortfall in water supply by 2015.
The storage system is holding 531,944 megalitres of a total capacity of about 1,773,000 megalitres, the lowest since Thomson Dam was finished in 1983.
