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Old 06-01-2008, 02:06 PM posted to aus.gardens
loosecanon loosecanon is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2006
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Default Aquaducts - irrigating Australia


"Blackadder XXIV" wrote in message
u...
Has there been a serious study done to see the feasibility of channeling
water from our far north to some of the drier parts of our continent? I'm
thinking of a massive pipe and aquaduct system.

It does seem sad that some parts of our land suffer from too much water -
whilst other parts suffer from its lack.

I'm not thinking that such a mammoth scheme could be achieved in 10 or
even 100 years- but what's the alternative? Desalination plants don't seem
to be that effective.

It would require cooperation from Federal, State and local - but if
achieved- it would be a boon for future generations.



P A Yeomans wrote several books (Water for every farm, Keyline Plan and City
Farm) on using water that is diverted from run off. As most of the rivers in
the north flood then are dry a week later it is a waste of a water resource
as it heads out to sea.

Farmers could utilise trapping water on their farms and having several water
storages. Then they could irrigate when needed. This is providing they are
on loam based soil with adequate slope.

Unfortunately now I think the government has decided to charge for dams and
storage of water. Citing that they are stopping flows to the rivers.
Unfortunately this has good points and bad. By not having dam storage the
water runs off into the rivers. By having storages you reduce the runoff but
once the dams are full run off proceeds as nature intended. So we need to
look at the long term benefits not a governments term in office.

Agriculture is a big user of water. So reducing it's impact by requiring
farmers to have adequate storages on their land is a better option. This of
course is providing they have the right conditions to do so.