Urban Water Supply

water drop The Greens are committed to sustainable solutions to the increasing crisis of urban water supply, especially in Sydney.

While ever-increasing population and changing rainfall patterns are placing increasing pressure on water supply, the Greens believe that demand-side management offers the best solution. Desalination and new dams are NOT the answer.

John Kaye and the Greens will continue to campaign against wasteful projects such as the Kurnell Desalination Plant and Tillegra Dam.

For more information:

See The Greens NSW Urban Water Policy

Campaigns

John is campaigning in these key areas of urban water policy:

Latest News:

Feature: Garrett has $1.5 million investment in rejecting Tillegra

23 February 2010

In mid-2009 the Rudd government recognised that the Hunter River Estuary was one of just 13 coastal hotspots throughout Australia requiring assistance to survive. Environment Minister Peter Garrett provided $1.47 million for repair, rehabilitation and other improvements to the wetlands and other habitat at the mouth of the Hunter River.

Another bad turning-rivers-inland project must be rejected

12 February 2010

The Greens called on NSW Premier Kristina Keneally and Acting Opposition Leader Andrew Stoner to unequivocally reject a private proposal to pump hundreds of gigalitres of water each year from the Tallowa Dam on the Shoalhaven River into inland towns and the Murray-Darling Basin.

Feature: Key NSW government agency warns Tillegra Dam risks devastating fish and prawn industries

09 February 2010

The NSW Department of Industry and Investment’s (II-NSW) official submission to the Tillegra Dam environmental assessment process savagely criticised the project, warning that the prawn and fishing industry in the Hunter would be at risk.

Rain swamps case for Sydney's desal - again

07 February 2010

Heavy rainfall in Sydney's catchment has washed away the Keneally government's arguments for running the Kurnell desalination plant whenever the city's storages are below 70 percent, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.

Feature: Government ignored expert advice to put Tillegra on hold

07 February 2010

In November 2008 the NSW government was warned of serious flaws in Hunter Water’s case for Tillegra dam by its own senior experts in an official response to a request for advice from Water Minister Phil Costa. The Minister was officially advised by his own department to not renew the directive to the pricing regulator to pursue the dam. This would have put Tillegra on hold. For fifteen months, the Rees and Keneally government continued to express public confidence in Hunter Water despite being told that their inflow and demand predictions were in doubt.

Feature: Sydney desal bad decision set to become worse

02 February 2010

Analysis by the Greens shows that the panicked decision by the NSW Labor government to push ahead with a desalination plant at Kurnell before their own strategy indicated it was needed will cost Sydney, Illawarra and Blue Mountains residents and businesses $1.2 billion on top of the cost of the plant over the next decade. Now that it is built, operating the plant when it is not needed is set to boost that figure to $1.6 billion.

Keneally government must come clean on desal plant usage

23 January 2010

The Greens are calling on the NSW Water Minister Phil Costa to explain when the $1.9 billion Kurnell desalination plant will be operated.

Tillegra Environment Assessment hides risk of $1 bn blow-out

14 January 2010

The Keneally government and Hunter Water are hiding the risk that Tillegra dam could double in cost because of the site's complex geological features, with appalling consequences for the state's borrowings and household water bills, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.

Key NSW govt agencies can Tillegra Environment Assessment

21 December 2009

The NSW government has been further embarrassed by their own agencies' scathing criticism of the Tillegra dam proposal and Hunter Water's Environmental Assessment Report for the $477 million water storage project, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.