No pipe dream: Tasmania could save the Murray

Most water engineers with local knowledge and who are not in thepay of the Department of Sustainability and Environment believethese projects will prove a waste of money in any case.

The extra flows to the lower Murray would ensure that the water atpresent pumped from the Murray at or near Murray Bridge to 90% ofthe population of South Australia could remain potable aftertreatment. The alternative is a stagnant lower Murray, whereacidification will seep up the river, making that water untreatableand unusable for human or animal consumption.

If Victoria rejects this option, the Tasmanians' alternative is to pipe water to Port Fairy and on to Adelaide.

This would be more expensive than the previous option and woulddeny the necessary additional flows to save both the lower Murrayand the irrigators, unless the Foodbowl Modernisation dream can bekept alive.

The attraction of the deal to Tasmania is that the water will beabout 10 times more valuable as water than as electricity. Thewater for the pipeline is planned to come from the Forth and Piemanrivers. Its value as electricity is about $10 to $30 a megalitre ifit is passed through the power station and into the ocean. If thewater is taken below most of the generators (diminishing less than1% of Tasmania's power) and piped to Melbourne, the value of thewater to Tasmanians is in the order of $300 a megalitre.

The ceiling on the value of the water delivered into the Melbournenetwork is $3300 a megalitre, which is the price the VictorianGovernment has promised to pay for desalinated water.

For both governments the choice is a no-brainer. Why would bothgovernments opt to refuse to enter into a memorandum ofunderstanding?

In the case of Victoria it could only be because it has alreadyentered a secret agreement with the consortium planning to buildthe desalination plant.

The magnitude of difference this would make to Victorians astaxpayers and water and food consumers, not to mention all votersliving north of the Great Divide and those concerned with theenvironment, would surely mean the Brumby Government (which opposedthe desalination plant during the last state election) would bethrown out at the next election.

The Tasmanian Government has a genuine political problem. ManyTasmanians understandably feel very attached to their water. Rightnow there is drought in north-east and central Tasmania.

The 400-500 irrigators in the north-east want a $400 millionpipeline from the north-west where there is plenty of water. Thestate would save money if it used some of the cash from sellingwater to compensate each farmer up to $50,000 to restructure theirfarms and produce something more suitable to the water available,which is still high by mainland standards.

Hydro Tasmania can't do anything to upgrade infrastructure for thecentral region because it has a billion-dollar debt. It needs moneyto match its responsibilities, and by selling water to supplementits sale of electricity, it can get at least some of that money.

If the deal goes ahead, Wong has nowhere to hide. She has toexplain why she has done nothing in her portfolio after eightmonths, apart from pouring cold water on the only option that hasthe capacity to save her own city.

kdavidson@theage.com.au