Water Use Regularly Curtailed
As of 3rd February, 2003, citizens of the Gold Coast were told that watering of their garden could only be done using buckets; an activity to be limited to every other day, between the hours of 4pm and 7am. This being just the latest in a series of restrictions on water use whose imposition is justified by the false claim that this drought is the worst since Australia kept records; whereas it is in truth the inevitable result of bureaucratic mismanagement.
Drought: A Perennial Australian Problem
Drought is a perennial Australian problem with water restrictions regularly imposed then eased following the vagaries of the Australian climate. The uncertainty of water supply does not just threaten urban gardens, but Australian crops and livestock, with the inevitable accompanying bush fires extending the threat to lives and property.
Dams and Recycling plants only a partial solution
Whilst damns and recycling plants are a way of reducing the impact of droughts, they too are susceptible to extensive droughts. Nor do they offer the huge volumes necessary to allow increases in population and agriculture.
Mass Desalination Plants
The simplest way of obtaining a permanent and unending supply of fresh water is to extract it from the sea by desalinisation. By establishing Nuclear power plants around the coast as desalinators, Australia could obtain an unending supply of fresh water, as well as an almost boundless amount of electricity. This is not a new idea for in the book 'Atomic Energy' (1958) Egon Larsen stated: —
For Australia atomic power means something very special. It means hope for the fulfillment of a national dream: that of making the arid, waterless inland bloom. Australian, British and American scientists have spoken of the possibility of distilling fresh water from sea-water at a cost of 5s. for 1 million gallons, and of irrigating the Australian desert with it. Chances are that, given water, Australia could in time produce more food than America. A ring of nuclear-power stations along the coast could do the job of distilling fresh water and pumping it into a network of canals.
If the use of Nuclear power stations should be too frightening for Australian citizens, then we could follow the example of Israel which is building five reverse osmosis desalination plants to supply 2/3rds of the nation's need for drinking water.