[Greens-Media] FW: $2 Billion Cost of Climate Change

[Richards, Kirsten]

WA Greens Water Spokesperson Alison Xamon MLC says it's time for the Barnett Government to join the dots on Perth's drying climate after the Water Corporation unequivocally blamed climate change for the need to build desalination plants.

"Recent responses by the Water Corporation to a Parliamentary committee have highlighted how successive state governments' open-slather approach on carbon pollution and energy use has come back to bite us," Ms Xamon said.

"In response to questions at a recent Parliamentary Estimates hearing, the Water Corporation explained that the only reason Water Corporation needed to build 145 gigalitres of desalination infrastructure in Perth is climate change.

"The need for desalination has not been driven by demand, because demand has stayed flat due to efficiency measures cancelling out the impact of population growth.

"The net cost of desalination infrastructure has been $2 billion, a cost to be borne by scheme water users and taxpayers.

"The Water Corporation unequivocally acknowledges that our water supply used to be boosted by more than 300 gigalitres of rainfall annually, but now we can scarcely rely on dam-inflow at all and the $2 billion-worth of desalination infrastructure will only generate half what we used to get from our dams.

"If nothing else, I hope that these figures convey to the State Government that it's time we stopped ignoring climate change as a serious economic threat."