Need for desal plant
Several writers are critical of the decision to build the desalination plant but they rely on inventing history to support their position.
When Sydney's dams were approaching 30 per cent capacity the choice facing the state government was between having a desal plant, or new dams, or invest in water capture.
It was never a choice between a desal plant or a new hospital or a wider road.
The desal plant has not been dumped in the ocean and the current government has leased it and is spending the proceeds on roads, hospitals and schools. These are the simple facts.
Let me suggest a little bit of thinking that desal critics can do at home: get a sheet of paper and draw your own projection of Sydney's population for the next 100 years.
Most of you will have a line which slopes upwards to the right. Now, on the same sheet of paper draw the expected rainfall available over the same period.
You will have a flat line across the page and will notice a growing gap between the flat line and the line representing population.
If you understand a bit more about the weather your rainfall line will not be flat but will have dips which represent years of drought in this 100-year graph.
Now you may start to see the desal plant not as wasted money but as insurance.
Michael Harrington, Bonnet Bay
