State water minister Tim Holding.By Shaun Inguanzo
WATER is the new liquid gold.
At least, through the process of deduction, that’s what I can conclude after meeting with the State’s Water Minister and Lyndhurst MP Tim Holding, who has reached 12 months in his portfolio.
No other single resource can claim to have its own State Government minister, and the water portfolio is no easy barrel to push.
It’s also why Victorians will spend billions of their tax dollars over the next four or five years on projects that will save more than 400 billion litres of water annually.
It’s why our water bills will double in price to accommodate these projects, as well as pay for the desalination plant in Wonthaggi.
Make no mistake – the plant is going ahead, and nothing will stop it – Mr Holding is convinced it’s an essential step to take. “What we’ve needed to do is to find sources of water that are not dependent on rain falling,” he said.
“There are plenty of dams, but a lack of water in those dams.”
The desalination plant will come at the cost of the massive amount of electricity required to power it – and it will be green energy sourced from around Australia, according to Mr Holding.
He’s also not worried about the salty brine that is the plant’s by-product, featuring twice the salinity of regular sea water.
“It will be discharged into the ocean, the Bass Coast, which is a very open area,” he said.
“The brine will rapidly break down…and will very quickly diffuse into normal salt concentrates.”
“The impact this has on marine life is negligible.”
Mr Holding said that the desalination plant was not the only solution to Melbourne’s water-full future. In fact, the plant will only output 150 billion litres of water a year – minor compared to the 437 billion litres a two-stage, federal and state funded project to fix farming water connections will save.
Mr Holding said that Victoria was now recycling 22 per cent of its water – not for drinking, however – compared to the 2 per cent it recycled under the Kennett Government.
