Fed: Governments need to focus on water demand, not supply

AAP General News (Australia)
04-20-2007
Fed: Governments need to focus on water demand, not supply

CANBERRA, April 20 AAP - The federal government must focus on urban water demand, not
just supply, to address the Murray-Darling Basin water crisis, a water policy expert says.

Prime Minister John Howard yesterday warned that irrigators in the Murray-Darling Basin
would not be allocated water for their crops from July unless there was heavy rain in
the coming weeks.

But Australian National University expert Quentin Grafton said the government should
look at the demand of water usage by urban households instead of looking at supply issues.

"We tend to focus on supply," Dr Grafton said.

"It hasn't rained, leading to massive reductions in terms of water storages, therefore
there can't be seasonal allocations in July."

He said governments needed to concentrate on ways of reducing demand for water, suggesting
a water price rise would be more effective than current restrictions.

"The way to adjust demand is price and we are not using that method," he said.

"Instead we have water restrictions which are not providing enough signals to households
to use water wisely."

Dr Grafton also said better economic analysis was needed to ensure money spent on water
was used in the right way.

Some previous policies were not thought through enough and money allocated for water
in the future would not be used wisely unless its purpose was properly analysed, he said.

Dr Grafton said rain would eventually come, but questioned where and when it would
relieve farmers.

But a senior scientist was not so optimistic, saying predictions of rain were irresponsible.

Graeme Pearman, who formerly headed the CSIRO's division of atmospheric research, said
a substantial amount of rain was unlikely to come soon.

"(Talking) to farmers and (being) affected by the emotional state they are in is very
traumatic, but it is not an excuse for making projections and suggesting that we will
get rain when it's not really scientifically possible to do that at this stage," Dr Pearman
told ABC Radio.

AAP sw/mfh/cjh/bwl

KEYWORD: WATER GRAFTON

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