The Forum > Article Comments > Water policy is not that simple > Comments
Water policy is not that simple : Comments
By Daniel Connell and Karen Hussey, published 13/2/2006There is tension between the idea of water as private property and water as a multi-use resource creating disputes over its management.
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Perhaps he might like to reread his post, along with the last one of mine to which he responded, and try to imagine what the average calm and sane person might make of it.
Then having reread it, did he find anything in it that is relevant to this debate on water policy?
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“No state or local government can legislate to stop this demand.”
wre, no state government has even tried. Not even the Carr government, which was interesting given how concerned Bob Carr always was about Sydney’s growing population.
However, some local governments have. Mike Berwick, Mayor of Douglas Shire in north Queensland, has been in his position for many years now, with a policy of limits to population and development. Others have followed suit to some extent – Noosa and Byron to name a couple.
Governments CAN mitigate population pressure. In fact it is one of their most fundamental roles to balance the private enterprise push for ever-more of everything with the protection of the community and environment. The really big problem is that governments are far too closely associated with the big end on private enterprise.
What you seem to be saying, if I dare to extrapolate, is that there is nothing we can do about continued population growth in this country, and that we will simply have to accept that it will take care of itself in its own good time, with all the consequences that it will bring.
We could build heaps more big dams and long pipelines. We could direct a huge amount of money into these projects, which would take money away from other ever-more needy areas and/or cause us to be taxed at a greater rate. Then yes, we might actually have water security….for a little while, until the population builds up the point of stressing that resource again.
Doing something like this would facilitate population growth, leading to a greater demand exerted upon resources that are equally or more stressed.