This morning I was interviewed on ABC Sydney‘s Breakfast show by James Valentine (whom, I recalled, I used to watch on the ‘Afternoon Show’ as a kid). The well-worn subject was whether to raise Warragamba Dam. I appeared before on the same subject in 2019.
Why the renewed interest? The release of a report by the IUCN – a UN environmental body, critical of the Government’s EIS for the project.
And here’s why it’s frustrating to participate in public debates like these. Intermittent headlines from this group or that denouncing the project, but which usually turn out to be less than they appear on further scrutiny.
The EIS for the project runs to over 8000 pages. It’s an extraordinarily detailed document that took three years to develop by scientists and experts.
And this report from the IUCN – a body that employs a thousand people and has an annual budget of $200M?
Four pages. Two of which are preamble and recapitulation in the conclusion.
I don’t accept the argument that the 0.05% of the World Heritage Area enduring temporary inundation will be damaged by the project. Nor do I see the project as a stalking horse for unfettered development on the floodplain. I support the project because there are 140,000 people who live and trade on the floodplain, and I don’t want them to die, or see their houses flooded, possessions ruined, or livelihoods destroyed.
Recently, Hawkesbury Council voted to reaffirm its traditional support for raising Warragamba Dam, and I am pleased that the complexion of the chamber has changed to permit that – as much as I disagree with my fellow Councillors on other issues. And it remains stubbornly true that this project should and will go ahead, barring a change of government at Federal or State level.
Our valley will flood again, and we should be prepared.