Water Water Everywhere
I'm disappointed that I have to resort to the international press to read the truth about our water situation ('Plunder Down Under', The Guardian, 8/11). Why are we spending tens of millions on advertising and regulation to drive changes in urban water consumption when it amounts to a meagre couple of per cent of what we waste on agriculture? It is manifestly inefficient and unfair for millions of suburban householders to subsidise the poor practices of a few thousands of cotton, rice and sugar farmers. Why is our media keeping quiet about this rort? I hope it's not the lucrative government advertising contracts.
Let's deregulate water and use market mechanisms to determine its allocation. We will very quickly find out if it makes sense to have one minute showers and a cactus garden while exporting rice to China. Let the market decide: Australia's suburbanites have never shied from an auction.
Let's deregulate water and use market mechanisms to determine its allocation. We will very quickly find out if it makes sense to have one minute showers and a cactus garden while exporting rice to China. Let the market decide: Australia's suburbanites have never shied from an auction.
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1 Comments:
We have the same problem in Punjab; using rapidly receding groundwater to grow paddy. The stupidity of the situation is well accepted but old habits seem to die far too hard. The politicians have their hands tied as making the farmers happy is the only sure way to win an election.
This year the rains failed again (except for one very memorable day of floods), and farmers are going hungry all over the state, but it doesn't seem to me like the lesson has been learned.
(Also I'd like to mention how much I like your new blog-style vent page. You've been in denial all along about this being a blog. ;)
-Taj
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