Why NSW Libs want Sydney to drink recycled water ...

... or recycled sewage, as Premier Iemma calls it.

Excerpt from the SMH:

Debnam punt has a bit of a stink

by Miranda Devine

18 February 2007

It is very brave, as Sir Humphrey might say, of NSW Opposition Leader Peter Debnam to turn the March election into a referendum on whether people will drink recycled water. Or "recycled sewage", as Premier Morris Iemma so delicately puts it.

Why, when the Labor Government is so vulnerable on so many issues, would Debnam risk everything on such a perilous point? And if he is being so bold and open-minded on water, why has he refused even to consider a new dam?

Regardless of the glowingly positive Herald-ACNielsen poll recently, and despite advances in filtration technology, there are still serious concerns about the wisdom of drinking treated effluent.

At the very least it is an issue wide open for the sort of pre-election scare campaign Iemma has already begun, inviting TV cameras to a press conference on Friday next to the icky brown sludge of an untreated sewage tank at the Penrith treatment plant.

That Herald-ACNielsen poll found 80 per cent of people in NSW would support the introduction of recycled water - in theory. The 1142 respondents were told "treated sewage and other waste water" would be "safe for drinking and other household purposes" and asked whether they would support or oppose recycled water to supplement Australia's supplies.

But a more straightforward question, including the word "toilet", in a poll by UMR Research for the NSW Government two years ago, gleaned the opposite response.

Asked how they felt about "drinking recycled sewage, including toilet water, that is treated to drinking water quality", 68 per cent of 600 people polled said they were uncomfortable.

And in a savagely fought referendum last year in Toowoomba (dubbed "Poowoomba") on whether to add 25 per cent recycled sewage to the dam, the vote was 62 per cent against.

We all want to do the right thing to conserve water, but the question is not whether recycled water is safe to drink. The question is whether we trust our government to effectively manage the water infrastructure into the future to ensure our drinking water will never be contaminated.

NSW governments have given us little reason for trust, judging by the crumbling infrastructure and water pipes bursting with sickening regularity.

Still seared into the memory of Sydneysiders are the weeks in 1998 when dangerously high levels of giardia and cryptosporidium parasites were found in the water system, leading to accusations of a cover-up by Sydney Water. An inquiry found there were problems with lab testing and operation of the treatment plants. Why wouldn't such errors be repeated?

Debnam talks of Singapore, but it is not a fair comparison. With plenty of rain but not enough land for dams, Singapore is forced to import most water from Malaysia. For self-reliance, it has added just 1 per cent of its Orwellian-sounding NEWater to reservoirs, rising to 3.5 per cent in five years - far less than the 10 per cent Debnam proposes to pump into Prospect Reservoir.
But we wouldn't have to copy Singapore if we built another dam.

Debnam says he was moved to announce his recycling plan after the latest downpour that dumped about 350 billion litres of rain on the Sydney basin in 30 hours - about nine months' supply. The rain, which also raised dam levels by more than 3 per cent, demonstrated the wisdom of having storage facilities to catch the water when it falls.

Debnam is sucking up to greenies like Jeff Angel from the Total Environment Centre, who hate dams and desalination and love recycling for ascetic reasons.

Not so brave after all.

See - Debnam punt has a bit of a stink.