A MAJOR report into water storage in NSW has failed to call for any new major dams to be built.
The Standing Committee on State Development’s report, “Adequacy of water storages in NSW”, instead focuses on increasing efficiency of use, through various strategies such as recycling waste water, using en-route storages and building more pipelines.
The report acknowledges 80 per cent of water use in NSW is agricultural, and includes submissions calling for new dams to be built at sites on the Murray, Clarence, Kiewa, Murrumbidgee and Buffalo Rivers.
It does not, however, recommend the construction of any of these dams.
“The committee believes that while dams play an integral and essential part in the water security strategy of the State, there is potential to extend the use of current water resources through more cost effective and strategic means,” the report states.
Chairman of the committee, Rick Colless, said this did not mean there would never be any more dams built.
“We’re not opposed to it (the construction of new dams)... in the next 10 years I think new dams or the enlarging of existing ones could be looked at,” Mr Colless said.
For now, however, there was clear focus on water efficiency.
The report detailed a number of ways water could be used more efficiently, and Mr Colless said two strategies that may be the most advantageous to rural NSW involved en-route storages and a new technology currently being trialled on the Murrumbidgee River.
En-route storages use sites too shallow for a major dam to be built as temporary storage sites.
Mr Colless said in western NSW in particular there were many sites that could be used for short term storage when river levels were high.
The new technology being trialled on the Murrumbidgee is the Computer Aided River Management system (CARM).
Mr Colless said CARM tracked river flows in real time through metering devices.
This would allow “on time delivery” for irrigators with better control of releases from dams, wasting less water.
Dr Pierre Mukheiber, from the University of Technology Syd-
ney’s Institute for Sustainable Futures, agreed that looking at efficiency of use was a better plan than building new dams.
“There are plenty of low cost options to increase water security by simple measures,” Dr Mukheiber said.
“We have moved on from the days of building big dams.”
Dr Mukheiber said the high cost of building a huge piece of infrastructure like a dam meant that all other options – such as recycling waste water, harvesting storm water or using more rain water tanks – should be investigated first.
NSW Farmers Conservation and Resource Management Committee member Debra Buller said dams should be part of future water storage options.
“NSW Farmers supports the construction of new storages in a strategic manner, to streamline electricity production, irrigation activities, primary production and community needs for mutually beneficial outcomes,” she said.
