NT Environment Centre - proposed water restrictions.

Dear Editor,

So Stuart Blanch from the mostly taxpayer-funded NT Environment Centre is calling on the NT Government to introduce water restrictions (NT News 30th November, 2010).

He goes on to tell us: “It’s a lot cheaper than building a new dam”.

Of course this is the typical “green” argument of no progress – just staying put and watching the world pass us by.

An argument which no doubt would advocate the following and a whole lot more:

No building of new roads – but putting restrictions on drivers;

No building of new ports – just restricting world trade to and from Australia;

No building of new power stations – just restricting power usage.

Well not for me. I am proud of man’s progress in Australia.

A country which prior to white man’s arrival was an under-utilised place inhabited by nomadic hunter/gatherers with no chance of developing a robust civilization able to take this huge land mass forward into the modern world in which we now live. A country which would have been unable to defend itself.

Of course the NT government should build more dams to store water for the future growth of our territory. It is a wise and prudent thing to do.

To do as Stuart advises would put us in the same desperate position as most of the other states where water restrictions are commonplace from time to time due to a succession of weak governments over the last 2 to 3 decades who have been afraid to build dams because of a fear of “green” whingers.

We should be using our abundant water supply here in the top end to make our city lush, green and attractive, like Singapore. Not the brownish dry-season dustbowl that Darwin can become - often resembling a Wild West frontier town.

The NT Government should be actively trying to reduce the cost of water, instead of increasing the price - on the back of some way-out “green” ideology.

And maybe Stuart should go back to wherever he came from if water restrictions really are so attractive to him.

Yours truly,

Dave Wane

Woodleigh Gardens

30th November, 2010