[Greens-Media] Water report shows Greens lead the way - Xamon

[Richards, Kirsten]

Hon Alison Xamon MLC for East Metropolitan 24-9-2010
 
The Public Administration Committee's report on recreational use in water catchments has largely supported the position taken by the Greens in their submission to the Inquiry. 
 
Hon Alison Xamon, Greens spokesperson for Water was one of only two MPs to contribute to the Committee's research. 
 
"The key message The Greens wanted to make clear to the Committee is the need for strong protection of our drinking water catchments - and this was accepted," she said. "We requested the Committee to accept the Water Services Association of Australia document - Effects of recreational activities on source water protection areas - as a primary source of information, and they did accept it. We now have a Committee report that recognises that cumulative recreational activity has ecological impacts in catchments which pose an unacceptable risk to raw water quality. Now the question will be, do we have a Government that recognises it?" 
 
Ms Xamon said she was concerned that organisations ostensibly representing recreational fishers have pleaded for access to catchment water storages, while neither they nor the public at large could tolerate the cost of further water treatment which will be made necessary if catchments are not managed properly.
 
"At the eleventh hour the Department of Water announced to the Committee that it had developed an inter-agency panel to identify ten water source areas to 'determine if they are still required for drinking water supply', and that 'any [source] area that is not required for future drinking water supply would be de-proclaimed and could be available for new or enhanced land and water based recreation'." She said. "At a time in which the threat of climate change is growing, the idea that we should be de-proclaiming water sources and actually undermining the security of our water supply should certainly be looked at with more scrutiny." 
 
The report identifies 10 water source protection areas for possible de-proclaimation as drinking water source protection areas to be given over to irrigation and recreation.  However the report also recommends that all future reviews of our water catchment areas should be based on the imperative of source protection and guided by the precautionary principle.
 
The report strongly endorsed The Greens call for changes to the ways infringements can be issued. The Greens WA have argued the State needs changes in the by-laws of the Metropolitan Water Supply Sewerage and Drainage Act to allow infringement penalties, in the way the Country Areas Water Supply Act currently operates.