With our total Wimmera storages now dropping below 30 per cent to 29.71 per cent, and our main reservoir in Rocklands languishing at 18 per cent capacity, drastic action is required at all governing levels, including water authorities. Our total water storage is capable of holding 556,895ML; at present we sit at 165,470ML. This is alarming, and summer is not here yet. 

We can’t receive any drought relief from the $5.7 billion white elephant desalination project located in Victoria’s East at Wonthaggi, coincidentally the wettest and coolest climate in the state, due to the extreme cost associated with water transportation. How is it that this project, with its extreme price tag, can sit by idly without actually creating a drop of water and cost taxpayers $1.8 million every day for the next 27 years?

It hasn’t yet produced a single litre of water since it was completed in December 2012. The location of the desalination plant should have been further west along the coast between Portland and Apollo Bay. It could drought proof and pipe water to the hottest and driest regions in the state, from Victoria’s south-west through to the Wimmera and further north to the Mallee, also allowing water to go east to both Melbourne and Geelong.

Water should have been able to be piped to our main water storage in Rocklands Reservoir during times of drought and low rainfall, which could then be re-directed to all areas of the Wimmera and Mallee with the construction of the Wimmera-Mallee pipeline. This would then keep major water storage at suitable and manageable levels for all requirements including stock and domestic, industry, agriculture, environmental flows and recreation allocations. Hence drought proofing the entire western side of the state. The government seems to think that if Melbourne and Geelong are drought proofed and ensured water through times of drought, then the entire state is safe.

Perth, coincidentally, constructed the Kwinana salt water desalination plant in 2006 which has roughly 30 per cent to 50 per cent output capacity of that of the Victorian Wonthaggi plant but only cost the Western Australian government $387 million to build and did not need to include a wind farm and 85km pipeline. If you drive around the Portland coastal area you’ll see wind turbines as far as the eye can see. That’s a cost difference for both projects of $5.313 billion without the extreme standby cost to Victorian taxpayers for the next three decades.

This is a disgusting and alarming amount of wasted taxpayers money, especially for a plant too expensive to even turn on, while our region’s water supply languishes. It just goes to show the negligence and incompetence of Labor governments when it comes to major projects and infrastructure construction budgets. The desalination plant was initially estimated to cost Victorian taxpayers $2.9 billion, later revised to 3.1 billion then later again to $3.5 billion. Once completed in 2012 the project cost blew out to $5.7 billion, that’s virtually double the initial estimate. 

Water is our most precious resource and not enough is being done at government level to ensure water security in the driest and hottest climates of our state, which includes the Wimmera-Mallee and south-west. Water, for obvious reasons, needs to be at the forefront of government policy. Sadly it is not and never seems to be. So many aspects resonate from water security apart from the most obvious such as human existence. It also includes industry, residential, employment, water sports and lifestyle, environment, wildlife, agriculture, livestock, domestic, fishing and recreation, tourism and fire prevention.

Numerous lakes and water bodies around the region face dire outcomes with so many lakes, creeks and river systems already completely dry, including Lake Lonsdale, Lake Wallace, Pine Lake, Dock Lake and Lake Hindmarsh. Sadly, lakes such as Toolondo Reservoir (Victoria’s premier trout fishery), Green Lake and Rocklands Reservoir face uncertain and catastrophic futures. Toolondo Reservoir, which received a water allocation of 5000ML in early 2015, now sits at just 17 per cent. When full it has a capacity of 46,215ML and is now sitting at a staggering 7960ML. This will inevitably result in large algae blooms, toxic water and mass fish deaths, along with wildlife stress and bird migration away from the lake towards Christmas. All the while, Rocklands water level continually drops at an alarming rate.

If Daniel Andrews and his Labor government are serious about their policy target of one million recreational anglers, then we need water to fish in, not dry useless dust bowls we used to call lakes and river systems which will inevitably happen by end of this coming hot summer.

More action is drastically required and pressure needed by the western Victorian public and elected members of parliament to make sure our voices are heard and this critical situation is corrected and never repeated. We need water security to be at the forefront of government policy on both sides including the Liberal and National parties. Cost effective infrastructure needs to be created to drought-proof the entire state and not just the vote-gathering zones of Melbourne and Geelong.

We want our future generations to enjoy the freedoms that water security provides them and not leave them with dry, unusable dust bowls. Only 20 years ago every single lake was full and all creeks and river systems were vibrant. We need to get the region back to this state of confidence. Some say the issue is too complicated, and that we just need to pray for rain, or it’s a result of climate change. I say nothing is too hard if the right decisions are made and the correct infrastructure is invested and put in place and lessons are learned from previous mistakes. Our entire nation is surrounded by sea water; let’s use it to our advantage. I hope for swift resolutions and water security placed in the forefront by both local and federal governments and overhauls of water authorities sooner rather than later. Our region’s water situation is both alarming and dire with most of our waterways and recreational lakes, if not already stressed, will be completely dry by the end of summer 2016.