Water...water

False economy | SA | The Australian: "Contrary to the impression created by the states, water is not scarce. In a study last September, the Business Council called this 'one of Australia's greatest myths'. It explains: 'The perceived shortages are due to artificial limits on supply to our cities and an inability to allocate water to its highest value use in rural areas. If we allocated water for environmental purposes for example, to restore river health and allowed market pricing and the laws of demand and supply to operate as they do in every other market, there would be no talk of shortages or the need to curb economic growth.'"

So are we short of water or not? As usual there is a marked increase in varying opinions so that your average person is confused. Right where they want us? Or do they actually know what they are talking about? That's the thing. You never know whether the powers that be are doing all this dancing to keep prices up and the general public in the dark, or if there is genuine mismanagement which we can allow for but we need to address. No one actually seems to know what they are talking about. If we have got water restrictions and reservoirs drying up...and then we watch buckets loads and torrents of water going down streets, drains, blocking roads, then no, we are not short of water. They are talking of cutting the pressure. Can they really justify that? Is it a reasonable solution? Will it put some buildings and areas at risk? What I do like is people are coming out and giving us their opinions and knowledge. There are a lot of people who are familiar both with the delivery of water to our systems and the management of biodiversity of issues for us to be able to hear some good opinions. What is happening is they contradict each other, so there needs to be some real clarification here. I am not surprised we are having trouble communicating because I think we are just waking up out of the brain numbing slumber of no-speak and no-think where three sentences of jingoistic nonsense were enough to solve any speaking need. We are dealing with complex issues here , so I would expect it to take time to get those rusty old cogs moving now we've decided to front up and think our way out of our problems. Let the debate continue, let us continue to consider all the ideas...and then let's get to work on it in a clear way so that we haul as a team.