OMG All This Water!

[icyfroth]

Coming out of our sky!

Our Goverment should invest in a pipeline to catch the rainwater from the Eastern Coastline to pipe it into the dry areas.

[cherry*135]

We had drought here on NSW Sth Coast, extreme water restrictions etc. Our water is provided by Sydney water, the dam it comes from was very very low in water. 

[cherry*135]

It can all be done. Yes it takes money. Same as the new airport at Badgery's Creek will, and our new North West Rail. The government should make the investment, it would pay off. Especially with all the employment it would create.

Knowing our stupid governments though, they would contract it all overseas.

No it can't  it is not feasible to do pipe water LONG DISTANCE in Australia. Governments have done studies.. as explained in my post above.

Unless you know more than experts and people who carried out the studies.

[the_great_she_elephant]

I hope you don't think it was an original idea to pipe water from one end of Australia to another.

There was a suggestion some years ago here in WA to channel water down to Perth from the Fitzroy River in the Kimberley. The proposed channel was promptly dubbed "Cane Toad Highway" and it probably would have been too.

At the turn of last century C.Y O'Connor designed and commenced construction of the Goldfields pipeline from Mundaring Weir just east of Perth to Kalgoorlie. Sadly, he was mocked and hounded by the media and committed suicide before his efforts came to fruition. When it was completed it was a triumphnt success and absolutely transformed the lives of those living in the area.

[cherry*135]

icy's suggestion is for long distance water piping... yes, there are some successful ones, but not long distances.

Has it been done before?

In particular circumstances and places, pipelines can be a useful way to improve the availability and reliability of our water supply. Significant infrastructure projects that transport water have previously been undertaken. However, none have been on a scale that would move large volumes of water for such a distance as from northern to southern Australia.

Past large-scale projects include the early 1900s 530 km Kalgoorlie Goldfields Pipeline, and the 1960s Snowy Mountain Hydro-Electric Scheme. Many shorter pipelines also exist in Australia. For example, pipelines carry water from the Murray River in South Australia to other parts of the state.

The longest of these (from the Murray River) is the 356 km Morgan to Whyalla pipeline, built in 1944. It can transport 206 megalitres (ML) of water a day. Pipelines have also recently been built in response to drought; a 105 km pipeline moves water from the Stirling Dam on Western Australia’s Harvey River to Perth.7

[mainecoon1]

Key facts

• Moving water long distances is costly, energy intensive, and can have significant environmental, social and cultural impacts.

So is moving oil and gas but that does not stop it happening and no one in authority seems to care about the enviromental, social and cultral impacts this has. At least moving water will benifit everyone and more crops can be planted and harvested and more live stock bred

[cherry*135]

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@mainecoon1 wrote:

Key facts

• Moving water long distances is costly, energy intensive, and can have significant environmental, social and cultural impacts.

So is moving oil and gas but that does not stop it happening and no one in authority seems to care about the enviromental, social and cultral impacts this has. At least moving water will benifit everyone and more crops can be planted and harvested and more live stock bred

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There was more than one key fact

• Moving water long distances is costly, energy intensive, and can have significant environmental, social and cultural impacts.

• Using water that is locally available is generally more cost effective than transporting water long distances. Current studies show that local options, such as water conservation, desalination and recycling, cost around $1–2 per thousand litres; a supply from 1500 kilometres (km) away would cost around $5–6 per thousand litres.5

• Much of northern Australia can be described as ‘annually water limited’. This means that in general, more water is lost every year through evapotranspiration than falls as rain.6

• Most rainfall in northern Australia falls near the coast, not in river headwaters, and runs off to the sea.

• The landscape across much of the north is gently undulating and at a low elevation, presenting few opportunities for surface water storage such as dams.

[mainecoon1]

That is because we have so few dams in Sydney, you would not have had the issue of extreme water restrictions if there had been enough dams and underground storage tanks that could have been used to pipe water to effected areas.  

[cherry*135]

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@mainecoon1 wrote:

That is because we have so few dams in Sydney, you would not have had the issue of extreme water restrictions if there had been enough dams and underground storage tanks that could have been used to pipe water to effected areas.  

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If facts are there aren't enough dams for local area, what is the point in icy wanting to pipe water to other states?

[mainecoon1]

here was more than one key fact

• Moving water long distances is costly, energy intensive, and can have significant environmental, social and cultural impacts.

• Using water that is locally available is generally more cost effective than transporting water long distances. Current studies show that local options, such as water conservation, desalination and recycling, cost around $1–2 per thousand litres; a supply from 1500 kilometres (km) away would cost around $5–6 per thousand litres.5

• Much of northern Australia can be described as ‘annually water limited’. This means that in general, more water is lost every year through evapotranspiration than falls as rain.6

• Most rainfall in northern Australia falls near the coast, not in river headwaters, and runs off to the sea.

• The landscape across much of the north is gently undulating and at a low elevation, presenting few opportunities for surface water storage such as dams.

 I did not bother answering these ones because Icy had already done so

[gleee58]

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@icyfroth wrote:

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@am*3 wrote:

Not possible though is it? 

We had a drought here (NSW) for about 5-8 years not that long ago, no water to pipe anywhere else.

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NSW is not the only state in which it rains.

Qld and NT have huge amounts of rain which could be stored and piped into drought areas.

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It's the catching, diverting and storing that screws potentially good ideas like this, that often sound so easy..