Here are a few examples of water supply options that could supply enough water to more than cover the quantity proposed from the Wonthaggi desalination option:

Have a look at the cost comparisons, the ongoing cost of water, and in particular the carbon emissions from each of these options.  Click on the links to see a new page with the details:

  -  options including non drinkable recycling (full cost of each option)

  -  options as above but excluding the cost of the government’s commitment to upgrade the Eastern Treatment Plant

  -  as above but including drinking purified recycled water from the Eastern Treatment Plant

People are being thrown out of their rented homes to make way for desal workers at hugely inflated rents. Do you know of anyone in this situation?

If so please ask them drop in and speak with a representative of the Tenants Union (confidentially) who will be at the Bass Coast Shire offices on Thursday 18th February (contact the shire on 56712222 or 1300 226278)

The local member of Parliament, Ken Smith, is also looking into this. He can be cotacted at his Wonthaggi office in McBride Ave. (again confidentially) 56724755, ken.smith@parliament.vic.gov.au

Or contact Jessica from Watershed on 0407 307231

Watershed will again be running an education and information stall at the Sustainable Living Festival in Federation Square, February 19th to 21st.

http://festival.slf.org.au/
If you would be able to help out on our stall please contact Jessica on 0407 307231.

WATERSHED

BULLETIN No 8

JANUARY 2010

IS NOW AVAILABLE

Click here, or on the image, to get it

PAST EVENT
FRIDAY 22nd January, 7.30pm, Wonthaggi Town Hall.

A GREAT time was had by around 250 people who attended the Watershed fundraiser show, “Bugger the Polar Bears - THIS IS SERIOUS”. As well as being hilariously funny, there was a fair bit of educational content as well.

A great time was had by all at our Christmas Bash

and we raised nearly $1000 to continue the fight for sustainable water policy

After a Busy and Tough Campaigning and Protesting Come and Enjoy

The Fun and Games –

FOR BOOKINGS AND NUMBERS CONTACT

MAGGIE – 0422 07 99 87 RSVP – ASAP p.s. a deposit would be great!

This was a great event, remember to keep
thinking globally and acting locally.

DESAL RELATED EVENT IN WONTHAGGI - Join the world-wide action to halt climate change. Meet others who share our concerns that the planet is being irreversibly depleted by our carbon-heavy footprint. Bring an example to read out of how YOU have changed your life to reduce your impact.

Spread the word - only by local climate change action can we get change happening !

We have now had a response of sorts from Westpac and NAB. As expected, they have not addressed many of our concerns, and they have relied on the State Government’s poorly scoped and inadequate EES. Stay tuned for more on this!

Gross negligence in funding the desal plant against their own ‘Equator Principles’. Looks like we may need to organise small groups, 2 or 3 people in your suburb, to let the public know in front of Westpac and NAB branches. Watershed can supply leaflet material (by post or we could make it available off the website for you to print). If you would like to participate, should we need to do this, please leave your details with an email to answers@watershedvictoria.org.au

Past event - Monday 23rd November, 11.00am

Well it’s been nearly three months now and the Banks haven’t given us any indication yet that they are following the corporate responsibility principles that they say they are. To their credit they did send a reasonable delegation of their representatives to meet with Watershed Victoria, but they provided nothing to indicate that they had met their obligations under the ‘Equator Principles’. More than a month later they have still not answered any of the many questions we left them with. Time to start spreading our concerns again, so we leafleted City branches on Monday, starting with the Westpac branch on the corner of Swanston and Collins St. at 11.00am. Join us now by writing to the banks to try to convince the banks that they have to do more if this investment is to come anywhere near being acceptable, both socially and environmentally. Further more diverse leafletting to follow if we don’t get responses soon.

This is the leaflet we handed out -

feel free to copy and distribute.

Click on the image, or here, to get a good copy

of both sides of the leaflet.

Questions, contact:

Stephen 0407 811778 or

Jessica 0407 307231

Energy use of Melbourne’s Water Supply set to skyrocket!

A quick look at Melbourne Water’s current and future energy use reveals some concerning facts, especially in the light of the need to reduce electricity use and carbon emissions. By clicking the image below you will see a breakdown of current energy usage in all aspects of Melbourne Water’s activities. The energy usage of the desalination plant will mean we will be using at least three and a half times as much energy once Melbourne Water starts sourcing water from the desalination plant.

As requested both Westpac and Nab sent representatives to a meeting with Watershed representatives at Kilcunda on Wednesday 14th October.

Results of our meeting with the banks in relation to our concerns about them not meeting their ethical investment guidelines:

• A presentation was given by Watershed pointing out our concerns and some background to the issues. The banks filled us in on various aspects of how they see their obligations and how they assessed the project.
• The banks have assessed this as a B-grade environmental and social risk project (from an A to C or no ranking range). Our fears were well founded, in that they admitted they largely relied on the proponents environmental assessment (as poorly scoped and resourced as it was), to give the project an acceptable risk assessment.
• Both banks used a consultant firm, originally employed by AquaSure, to “do their assessment”.
• The banks agreed that ongoing assessments would be required, although the scope or scale of this was not available.
• They claimed ‘confidentiality’ as their reason for not previously consulting Watershed, and for not immediately being able to address some of our concerns.
• The consultant, who was present, said he believed that alternatives were not available, based on previous work he had done for Government, and an unspecified document he did not name or indicate availability of.
• Watershed pointed out that by relying on a flawed EES and failing to consider all issues the equator principles 2 and 3 in particular had been inadequately addressed. After our presentation there was general agreement that the issues around using desalination to secure Melbourne’s water supply were many and varied.
• Watershed have left the banks with a list of issues that we feel have been inadequately addressed including some of the above and also the following; we have requested they furnish us with responses to these concerns in a timely fashion:
  • Why was the project given a category B status given the scale, implications for future water policy, location, multiple areas of impact, unresolved concerns and unaddressed issues involved?
  • How can their environmental assessment be adequate given that it either did not, or only inadequately addressed issues such as the need for baseline studies, choice of site or processes, climate change implications, social issues and cumulative impacts of this project over time and with existing and future projects?
  • What do the banks see as ‘consultation’, what will the following plans contain and when will they be available:
    • ’social environmental management plan’
    • ‘borrower’s grievance mechanism’
    • ‘works environmental management plan’
    • ‘ongoing environmental monitoring plan for compliance’ ?
  • What degree of public transparency will the banks require of the above, and when will they be required?

Stay tuned to see whether the banks reassess their involvement in this project or whether we get satisfactory responses to these and other concerns.

• Please continue to send letters with your concerns to the banks, click here.
• Should you be prepared to take action if we do not get satisfactory responses please contact us, click here.
• Click the ‘BANKS’ tab at the top of the page for more information on this issue.

Housing Hardship on the Bass Coast - more desal impacts

If you know anybody in this kind of situation please call Jessica on 0407 307231,

or if you have evidence of specific locations where people have been dislodged from their accommodation, and replaced by desal workers please call Maurice on 0419 552385.  Maurice is also looking for a copy of the EMP (Environmental Monitoring Plan) that is supposed to exist for the works underway at present, should you happen to know where a copy could be found.