WE ARE IN TROUBLE!

There is no question about it.. we have an emergency in Melbourne.

Look at this set of graphs.
http://conservewater.melbournewater.com.au/content/storage.asp

JAN 1997 100% full
JAN 1998 72% full
JAN 1999 70% full
JAN 2000 57% full
JAN 2001 62% full
JAN 2002 58% full
JAN 2003 52% full
JAN 2004 56% full
JAN 2005 59% full
JAN 2006 58% full
JAN 2007 38% full
JUNE-07 28% full "NOW"

Now.. lets look at the 'morality' of the water resource and apply some Biblical perspectives.

1/ Privatization of water= "Shareholder value" rules, rather than public good. (and is therefore immoral and to be condemned)

2/ Because of "1" above, the natural tendency of Companies which are responsible to their shareholders, will be to:

a) Keep maintainance/costs as low as possible.
b) Not to invest in infrastructure.
c) Be aimed at short term 'numbers' to maximize CEO bonus's, Shareholder dividends etc.

Which again are immoral, and deserve the sternest rebuke.

Of course, wisdom will tell us that far sighted CEO's and boards will recognize that without investment in infrastructure, "eventually" things will fall apart.

CEO contracts and exit benefits mean they don't have much to worry about as they plunder resources on which the public depends and build their 'panelled houses' adding room to room.

All this shows how fundamentally 'sinful' we are, and our governments, and how 'Shareholder Value' is the new BAAL of modern Australia.

II Kings 17:16-18
16And they forsook all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made for themselves molten images of two calves; and they made an Asherah, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.
17And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings, and used divination and sorcery, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger.

THEREFORE..... the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight; none was left but the tribe of Judah only. (2 Kgs. 17:16-18)

This is actual history.

Climate change. 300,000 immigrants per annum. How could things end up otherwise? Yes, pay $5 per kilolitre to ScrewU4H2O Inc for your plant killing, foul tasting desalinated water and all will be fine for them at least. With simple population regulation, high quality water could once again be cheap and abundant. How come the pollies keep up the "population growth is great" mantra, yet are hopelessly struggling against the resultant deprivations?

Fester :) I bring your attention to Hezekiah's words to Isaiah the prophet when told what is going to happen due to Hezekiah's stupidity.

Pollies.. kings... always balancing things so they can maximize votes and stay in power..but with this one, water.. there is not a whole lot of juggling to be done. Its like the juggling balls will have bounced away and the hands are still going through the motions..but to no purpose.

I suppose there is also a weighing up of it like this:

"If we get in lots more people.. then we can BLAME whoever is in power (if it isn't us) for their lack of action in providing adequate storage..and in the mean time, our source of cheap labor will be supplemented. If we are in power when the crunch comes we can blame THEM ..the other mob for not doing enough when they were in power"

Honestly, I don't know how Politicians think on such things. Maybe they just don't ?

I know one thing though, if we continue for 2 more years at current consumption rates, we won't need to worry about us being up that proverbial creek without a paddle, because there will be no WATER in the jolly creek.

ANOTHER IMMORALITY of privatization of Water....is where the public is punished for buying water tanks, and thus consuming less from the Water Company....the privatization of such utilities would only happen with reasonable guarantees of profitability right ?

I guess that means we will be paying more for less, so they can maintain their revenue. But screw them, I'll be 100% independant if I have my way. (from the Electric companies also grrrrr)

Gawd spare us - Boazy's discovered climate change! At least he's not blaming it on the Q'uran and/or Muslims... yet.

CJ Morgan, "At least he's not blaming it on the Q'uran and/or Muslims... yet." - you could not find that part either. That's two of us.

BD the points you make
a) Keep maintainance/costs as low as possible.
b) Not to invest in infrastructure.
c) Be aimed at short term 'numbers' to maximize CEO bonus's, Shareholder dividends etc.
are not just private company problems, they apply to government run enterprises as well. Sometimes worse when the government is running it because the shareholders (government ministers) are looking to the next election and not 10 years down the track.

Queensland has had the symptoms you mention criple a number of government run services (Electricity, Health and Water - not sure about rail). We were fortunate with the electricity setup that some bad storm highlighted the problems before they got too bad and the government was forced to do something about it. Union ties to the government make it even worse because they don't speak out particularly vigorously against Labor Governments.

Our water supplies are even lower than yours. Stopping the construction of the long planned Wolfdeen dam had nothing to do with winning votes in a difficult election.

R0bert

CJ... well may you say 'God spare us'....because He is the only one who will.... we will not spare ourselves. Greeeeeeeed will take us down.

No.. I can't think of any 'anti Muslim/Islam/Quran' angle on this one..sorry to dissappoint you.

I was just checking our water storage after this recent bout of rain, thinking that it might have gone UP rather than down, no such luck.

If you look at the graph, you will notice that the MOST the level has risen in the past few years is 2003 when it went up 15%. This was an 'exceptional' infilling, compared to every other year. In 2006 the level went down by approx 18%

The graph for 2007 is analoguous to 2006, virtually the same, but the starting point was only 38% so unless we have bumper rain... we will end this year with about 25% capacity.... given that we CONSUME about 15% of capacity per year, at the end of 2008 we will have the grand total of......... 10% !

Even if we had a bumper rain in 2007, it would not add more than 15% which would give us maybe another year.

Never has there been a time, when the only answer will be:

1/ National humility and sincere repentance to God..
2/ Water prices which will either bankrupt us, or the industry base.

Even if we opted for 2 and sent the Almighty the middle finger, (as many people tend to do) we would still not stop the impending crisis.

The prophets often spoke about 'impending crises' they could see what would happen, they predicted it... the people gave God the rude finger, clinging to their cult prostitutes and fertility gods... killing their own children (gee.. where does that happen today ?)
BAALs new name is 'not convenient'.

We:
-go after sorcerers and the occult.
-kill our (unborn) children.
-Immerse ourselves in degrading literature, films and live experiences.(cult prostitutes)
-encourage devient sex.

God can bring rain in abundance ....2morrow. Forget El ninio.

I was reasonably with it, until the water crisis was tied to abortions and immoral sex.

Crikey. I knew the sex issue tends to be a controversial one, but now those damn pro-choicers, prostitutes and homosexuals are indirectly sabotaging our water supply. How on earth do they sleep at night.

TurnRightThenLeft, it's all right we can blame the drought on the increase in fundy religious types. Their influence seems to have grown over the last few years and the tooth fairy has taken away our water as a consequence.

She can fill our dams anytime those fundies come to their senses or the rest of us rise up and extract all their teeth (or dentures in BD's case) and leave them under a giant pillow. If we don't get full dams at least the money will help pay for some infrastructure.

We should just be glad that extreme weather conditions have nothing to do with climate change, wouldn't that be a mess if that was the case.

R0bert

TRTL thankyou for pointing out the apparent 'blaming the queers' tone of my last post. This might be difficult to grasp, but it was not mean't that way, I'm blaming ALL of us. I was drawing parallels between our current moral state, and that of Israel during the times of King Hezekiah (have a read of the books of Kings to see the historical connection between 'corruption on the throne and then the market place' and then see how the Prophets were calling the kings (Prime Ministers/Presidents/Polies) to return to the Lord, with a warning of 'things to come' of a rather unpleasant nature if they persisted with their spiritually and morally bankrupt ways.

The freedom to persue the moral choices, lifestyle and attitudes to which I referred is as much blamable on an apathetic, guilt ridden (oh dear.. we must not 'pick on' the so and so's) selfish community as any particular element of it.

Remember the recent day of prayer for rain ? do you then recall that a few weeks after many places in the bush had more rain than for the past 100 yrs ? Sure.. be mean spirited and see no connection :) but... having seen answered prayer during times of crisis myself, I prefer to see a connection.

ROBERT..
ur right about the QLD water situation.. my goodness! Hope you have a tank under your storm water pipes.
Also, from your previous post, yes.. those issues are common to all major enterprises, and are one of the fundamental flaws of capitalism as a system.

DENTURES ? :) I'm in denial about them.. I do have increasingly large gaps in my teeth, and have only one spot where I can effectivly chew the cud between upper and lower teeth, and one of those toothypegs is fake anyway, (but not a denture). As long as my FRONT teeth are in tact.... I won't go for dentures.

Boaz , We can indeed thank the good Lord for you keeping your two front teeth!

The thought of you doing a denture spit over the nasty comments of some of your OLO opponents is a rather hair raising thought. I'm going to hang onto mine too.

But hang on BD ,didn't those farmers' wives and girl friends do a females only nude rain dance with good results ?

The good Lord must have smiled on them .

Jim... you got me there mate.. I don't know if they did the starkers dance, but if I was to choose the most effective I'd have to go with prayer :)

It's not wise to place too much weight on the specific answer to specific prayer in these situations, because as you pointed out, other people do other things. As a general principle though, I think a spiritually healthy community can be more confident of the Lords blessing than an immoral and decadent one.

Have a read of II chronicles 7:13

Cheers mate.

Blimey David. I don't know if Melbourne's water situation is as bad as you suggest. I've got a friend who lives in one of Melbourne's leafy suburbs and if she should get a spot of sauce on her blouse, it's not uncommon for her to simply throw it in the top loader and hit the 'go' button.
I did chastise her at one stage, but she simply remarked...."The Yarra's still full to the top!"

David, you've got three distinct problems in Melbourne. I'll list them in order of importance.....
1) Too many water using industries,
2) Too many people with my friend's attitude and...
3) Too many people!

Actually, I'll take back number three. If they heed my words, they may well migrate to the bush and we certainly don't need any more city slickers invading the country, especially up my way. Too many of the buggers moving here as it is and pushing my rates through the roof!

Immigints, I knew it was them! Even when it was the drought I knew it was them!

Spendosplash...I refer you to Aime's point "3".... you can't blame a drought when its all dem immigrunts mate :) kidding.. but it IS people.. we need to structure our population on the basis of WORST case, not 'best'.....

Aime.. on our water crisis.. you not knowing if its as bad as I say.. trust me..it is. Just goto the Yarra Valley Water web site, and compare the MAX refilling level over the past few years with the consumption levels and it clearly shows WE ARE IN THE PROVERBIAL (WATERLESS) CREEK :)

Attitude change usually only occurs when you are a consumer of firewood for your cooking and suddenly discover you have chopped down all the trees.......

but by then...its a bit late.

Yes David, I believe the water situation not only for Melbourne, but for many rural towns and cities is very dire indeed. My opening was a little 'tongue-in-cheek' but highlighting the fact that many city people, like my friend, seem to think that "someone" or "something" will fix the problem. They won't!
Fortunately, I live in a rural area with my own stored water supply, but my dam is as low now as it was at the start of last summer and my fire pump is reliant on that same low supply. This is indeed very serious and not a joke in any way, shape, or form. It's way too soon for people to start rejoicing simply because we've had a bit more rain at this time of the year than at the same time last year. Even as I write this, bright winter sun is streaming through my window and no rain in sight. The crisis is very much far from over.
My nearest major city is Ballarat and the main water supply there is down to just 10%. True, Bracksie is surging ahead with the "super pipe-line" but I'm starting to wonder how much water he can grab from the Murry Darling to fulfill the dream of topping up Ballarat and Bendigo's water supplies. I'm guessing it's why he balked at the Feds taking over the "basin."
I invite you David, to come up to Ballarat and see for yourself just how dire the situation is. Many other small townships have been carting water for a couple of years. It will be interesting to see my water wasting friend running down the street chasing the water cart with a billy in her hand.

Scarey Stuff Aime... I've travelled to Bendigo a few times during the dry.. and it is drepressing.

It's so eassssy to just think water will always be gushing out of our pipes. after all..it always has ? :)

It reminds me of ol Noah building his Ark..

Passer by.."What the?... are you mad Noah"?
Noah. "Soon there will be a great act of God's judgement"
Passer by "What will that be?"
Noah.. "Cant say"
Passer by "C'monnnn.. you can give me a HINT surely"
Noah..Ok.. just one hint (Booming voice) 'How-- long--- can you.... tread water?'

I heard Bill Cosby do a sketch like that :)