Perseus,
As usual old mate, you have outsmarted yourself. Common occurence when you go ever faster in a circle.

What on earth are you bung'n on, Shonga.

Why is the proposal to pipe water in Queensland "impractical"? I have yet to see the pro and con clearly set out. Please someone enlighten me.

ALAMO, Please read the comments of “Perseus,” who has done the costing of
Pipeing water over the distance from Cairns to the South East of Queensland.
I could find better thing to do with that amount of money, let alone adding on
The interest. We had our water piped from Blackwater, a distance of 12 miles, or 20
Kilometres back in 1982 and still we pay more, and limited to sprinkler use by
3hrs per day, compared to their 4-5 hrs per day. No doubt we are still paying interest
On the loan. Still, I calculated my water usage to cost me less
Than 2 dollars per day.Water delivery would be $1.00 to $1.50 per day.
Perseus, I won’t apologise for being satirical, it is in my nature.

Latest estimates of piping recycled waste water to Tarong Power Station just west of Brisbane suggest that the cost of water will need to double to pay for the $500 million project that will replace only 40,000 megalitres of dam water.

And this is why we don't even need to fully cost a pipeline from the Burdekin. We know with absolute certainty that the retail price of that water will have to increase to such a point that the humble household water tank will deliver a higher rate of return than selling Cocaine, with none of the risk.

All these mega-dreams are based on the assumption that the water mafia can just raise the price of water to pay for any grandiose scheme they can think of and the public will continue to pay. They are totally deluded.

Most water tanks will already deliver a better product at a slightly lower cost and that imposes a very powerful price ceiling on the domestic water market. And the higher the demand for tanks, the cheaper they will become. And the greater the losses will be from the mega-projects. Now that, is real people power.

Perseus on Wednesday, 26 July 2006 11:00:22 makes the excellent point that most water tanks already deliver a better product at lower cost. He further suggests that this will provide powerful constraints to the water mafia's grandiose money-making schemes.

Unfortunately our corporatised governments are so corrupt that, should tanks show signs of undermining the ability of the water mafia to profit from water scarcity, they will simply impose taxes on tank water, or even take over rights to it prior to selling those rights off, just as they have begun to with river water and farmers' dams.

The simplest arguments against the highjacking of public water for complex management are in defence of democracy. To compromise access by humans and other creatures to this natural resource once freely available to all for the ignoble purpose of irrigating population growth for commercial gain, is a dark deed against democracy and natural justice.

By the way, there is another forum about water in Brisbane on John Quiggan's blog at http://johnquiggin.com/index.php/archives/2006/07/28/vote-yes-in-toowoomba/

if anyone wants to enliven the sparse arguments there.