The NSW Government is sending mixed messages on water conservation by easing water restrictions one week and then embarking on a $2.15 million water saving advertising campaign the next.
Our rainfall will be more variable under climate change and we must all continue to use water efficiently now to meet the demands of future dry periods.
The Government has shown it is out of touch with the people of NSW who have adapted well to water restrictions and did not ask for water saving measures to be lifted.
The proposed 450,000 million litre dam (size of Sydney Harbour) on the Williams River above Dungog in the Hunter Valley is totally unjustifiable, expensive and will destroy one of the few healthy rivers left in NSW.
Sydney has just been relieved of major water restrictions but will still have water saving measures in place, including no garden sprinklers between 10am and 4pm, no hosing of hard surfaces and trigger nozzles for car washing. The Hunter had no water restrictions at all right through the drought and has no water saving measures in place - yet all water storages are currently full. Tillegra Dam will increase Hunter water supply by 150 per cent.
NSW’s inland aquatic ecosystems have undergone significant changes since European settlement, with about 50 per cent of them lost over the past 200 years, according to the 2006 NSW State of the Environment Report.
The NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change has drafted a NSW Wetlands Policy aimed at guiding wetland managers and increasing cross-government approaches to wetland conservation.
The Nature Conservation Council has a long history of participation in the policy and managements of Wetlands in NSW and welcomed the recent opportunity to make a submission on the draft NSW Wetlands Strategy. The NCC identified several areas where we thought the policy could be strengthened.
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The NSW Government is sending mixed messages on water conservation by easing water restrictions one week and then embarking on a $2.15 million water saving advertising campaign the next.
By Bev Smiles 
NSW’s inland aquatic ecosystems have undergone significant changes since European settlement, with about 50 per cent of them lost over the past 200 years, according to the 2006 NSW State of the Environment Report. 