A couple of interesting news items have been raised in Queensland. First is that Adani will have the right to remove up to 26ML (a ML is a million litres) of groundwater a day by 2029. So in a year this is up to 9,490 ML of water removed (I note with interest the report suggests ground water extractions may be capped at 4,550 ML (a gigalitre is a billion litres). So the 26 ML/day must be an upper figure, that suggests that the asset is unreliable or that groundwater recharge rates are variable.
The other news story examines the proposal to increase Wivenhoe Dam by up to 900,000 ML for a cost of $881 million. This works out at a cost of $979/ML. If I remove all concerns about the difference in value of surface water and ground water, then the Queensland Government is forgoing a water asset worth between $4.45 to $9.29 million. It will be interesting to see if Adani is allowed to use this water in any way they see fit: for example, sell the asset on? Comments are closed.
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AuthorDavid Adamson Archives
February 2019
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