Contingency plans in South Australia when water is too salty to drink

Well, isn't Australia in a nice mess.  It can't manage its water and it won't admit it.  It twists and turns and messes things up some more.  Now, Adelaide is making contingency plans for towns who won't be able to drink the water because it is too salty to drink.  Read about it here with disgust and amazement.

And irony upon irony, the more bottle water is supplied the more the powers-that-be aggravate the water supply situation and play into the hands of the corporates who continue to wreck our water, profiteer from our water, and either provide false information about water or lock out the traditional wisdom of managing water.

Aren't we so clever!

Thanks to Networker Maria Reidl for the tip-off.

Nonviolent Peaceforce is an unarmed, professional civilian peacekeeping force that is invited to work in conflict zones worldwide. With international headquarters in Brussels, Nonviolent Peaceforce has worked in the conflict areas of Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Guatemala. Among other activities, it works with local groups to foster dialogue among parties in conflict, provide a proactive presence and safe spaces for civilians, and develop local capacity to prevent violence. Its staff includes veterans of conflict zones and experienced peacekeepers.

THE MINERS ARE AT THEIR DIRTY WORK AGAIN: SAVE STEVE'S PLACE

Now, dear Networkers, just in case you get it wrong. Miss Eagle is not anti-mining. I've lived in too many beaut mining towns to ever be anti-mining. However, I do think it is high time they just took a look at themselves. They are heading for Steve Irwin's place in Cape York, Queensland. Don't let the miners get hold of it and wreck it. Just a signature could do it so get over here straight away. Please and thank you.

The Bishop of Gippsland John McIntyre: how people of faith exhibit special pleading

When my friend John McIntyre was made Bishop of Gippsland my reactions were joy and dumbfoundedness.  You can read my views here.

To-day I am once again thankful for this man's clarity and vision - and, once again, his permission giving style.  I hope The Age does not want me to withdraw this direct lift from its Opinion pages but here is vintage Johnny Mac from the pages of The Age to-day:

A betrayal of the faith

JOHN MCINTYRE

September 29, 2009

Christians should support equality and human rights laws, not seek exemptions.

I AM perplexed! On Sunday, The Age reported that Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls had, after extensive lobbying from conservative church leaders, pre-empted a parliamentary committee report on exemptions to the Equal Opportunity Act. Hulls announced a compromise that will allow church groups to continue to discriminate, albeit in a more limited way. This will, I imagine, also flow on to the national debate under way in regards to the introduction of a national Human Rights Charter.

Such a response is arguably at odds with the essence of what the founder of the Christian faith lived, taught and died for. How bizarre that the followers of Jesus Christ would oppose, and ask for exemptions from, a legal instrument that has at its heart a declaration of the dignity and value of every human life and the basic rights of every person. Jesus of all people, would champion an affirmation of fundamental human rights, which especially benefits marginalised groups in society and those least able to protect themselves.

But it is even more perplexing than that. In Victoria, the churches are arguing for the continued right to be exempted from obligations under the Equal Opportunity Act that would require them to uphold universally recognised human rights in matters of employment by church organisations.

Since it has been pointed out that this exemption is arguably in conflict with the already-established Victorian Charter of Human Rights, the churches are rushing to defend the privilege not to uphold a truth that lies at the very heart of the Christian understanding of the universal dignity of every human being. I have no concern that churches want to foster Christian caring organisations and learning communities. But why claim this can only be done if they are given exemption from a law, which like a Charter for Human Rights, is designed to affirm universal human rights?

It is good for Christians to engage in the debate about the values that characterise the society to which we belong. But we need to be clear that the grounds upon which we argue maintain the values for which we stand. Certainly, Christians living in more oppressive societies appreciate the value of a human rights charter, which, among other things, guarantees freedom of religion and freedom of speech and association. Australian Christians would do well to listen to their voices as we now discuss this matter within the life of our own nation.

But even more importantly for Christians, they should listen to the voice of Jesus. On the matter of the fundamental dignity of every human being, his story of the Good Samaritan is instructive. It is a narrative with radical implications. Told in the context of the conflicted multicultural society of Jesus' day, it is the story of a man who is beaten and left for dead on the side of the road. Two religious leaders from the same ethnic and socio-religious background as the victim pass him by and do nothing for him; perhaps out of fear, or even worse, perhaps because their religious sensibilities tell them not to touch one presumed to be dead. Eventually a Samaritan, a man belonging to the group most despised both by the victim and the ones who passed by, stops and cares for the beaten man, not counting either the risk or the cost to himself.

The shocking truth of this story is that the one considered most to be the enemy and least likely to know what is right and good proves to be the one who does what is right and good, even for a person from a group who despises him. This is a deliberately provocative and stark affirmation of the humanity of those most distant from us in every way. It tells the listeners that they only truly acknowledge the common humanity of every human being when they acknowledge that an ordinary member of the group most opposed to them is capable of doing what is right and good. This story asserts that when we see the other human being as one capable of goodness, we affirm the other person as truly human. This is even more potent than the other truth in the story: that whenever we see anyone in need, whoever they are, they deserve our help. At the heart of what Christians proclaim as the Gospel of Jesus Christ is this radical affirmation of universal human dignity as the basis of universal human rights.

How strange that today some of the heirs to the anti-slavery campaigner tradition of the church seem reluctant to support a Charter of Human Rights in Australia and seek ongoing exemption from the Equal Opportunity Act in Victoria. Those Christian social reformers who opposed slavery, such as William Wilberforce or Pope John Paul II, would surely be perplexed by this stance. If a radical statement of the full humanity of every person, simply because they are human, lies at the heart of Jesus' teaching and if he showed a particular concern for the marginalised and the most vulnerable, why then would Christians oppose a legal instrument designed to affirm these truths?

And furthermore, why would Christians defend their right to be exempt from a commitment to them when employing people to work in their church-based organisations? That is why I am perplexed.

John McIntyre is the Anglican Bishop of Gippsland

 and chairman of the Victorian Council of Christian Education.

TYPHOON IN THE PHILIPPINES

My good friend and Networker Sylvia is a Filipina and sent me the following pictures.

PLEASE NOTE:

Caritas Australia is accepting donations to provide emergency aid. 

To make a donation please call 1800 024 413.

This is a letter from the Philippines Ambassador to Australia
Click to enlarge.
If additional enlargement required try Control ++

CONTACT: Oxfam International

Laurelle Keough (international media) on +66 86 530 8394, laurellek@oxfam.org.au

Uamdao Noikorn (regional media) on +66 81 855 3196, unoikorn@oxfam.org.uk

Flooding in the Philippines Highlights Urgency of Climate Leadership

Climate change is already affecting South-East Asia

LONDON - September 28 - The worst flooding the Philippines has seen in decades highlights the urgent need for US leadership to push UN climate change negotiations in Bangkok forward to help ensure the best chance of securing a global climate treaty in Copenhagen.

In the Philippines, with many dead and 330,000 displaced by flooding in Manila, climate-related factors are blamed for an increased burden on the health budget, which is struggling to keep up with increased cases of nutritional deficiencies and diseases such as dengue, malaria and cholera.

Oxfam research shows that the number of people affected by climate crises is projected to rise by 54 per cent to 375 million over the next six years, threatening the world's ability to respond.

Oxfam International Senior Climate Policy Adviser Antonio Hill said the content of the new US Climate Change and Energy Bill due to be introduced in the Senate this week, and moves from US officials in Bangkok from today, would provide a stronger picture of whether the US was willing to step up and provide the momentum desperately needed in the negotiations.

Mr Hill said recent announcements by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the EU on climate financing, and Japan and China's stronger language last week on emissions reductions and finance, would put extra pressure on the US to step up and signal its intentions on its role in a global deal.

"Despite good intentions and warm words over the past six months, the US didn't deliver real leadership last week at the UN Climate Summit and G20.  Either the US lifts its game, or the next two weeks in Bangkok could go down as just a holding pattern before a fatal nosedive in Copenhagen," he said.

He said while many key countries, including China, India, Japan, the African Union, the Least Developed Countries and the Alliance of Small Island States, had shown they were ready to enter the final, more detailed phase of negotiations, intransigence on the part of rich countries like the US, Canada and Australia was proving an obstacle to progress.

Key sticking points remain the emissions reductions developed countries are willing to deliver - current commitments are around 15 per cent instead of the science-based 40 per cent reductions on 1990 levels by 2020 - and the amount of financing they will put on the table for developing countries to both adapt to the impacts of climate change and develop on a low carbon pathway.

The two-week negotiations, held in South-East Asia, one of the world's most vulnerable regions to climate change, is the penultimate negotiation session before Copenhagen in December, when a fair and safe global climate change treaty must be secured.

Mr Hill said that whilst last week's summits in the US were forums for world leaders to signal their intentions, the UN negotiating process continuing in Bangkok was the only place where countries could forge an agreement to avoid catastrophic climate change.

"It's crunch time," Mr Hill said.  "What is needed for a breakthrough is a clear commitment from developed countries - responsible for three-quarters of the carbon in the atmosphere - to commit to substantial finance, additional to existing aid levels, to developing countries."

Climate change is already affecting South-East Asia:  extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts, floods and tropical cyclones have increased in frequency and intensity in recent decades, exacerbating water shortages, hampering agricultural production and threatening food security, causing forest fires and coastal degradation, and increasing health risks.

Mr Hill said a study in Thailand found that aquaculture farmers in Bang Khu Thian were spending an average of US$3,130 per household every year to protect their farms from coastal erosion and flooding between 1993 and 2007 - a fourth of annual household income.

"Once developing countries have confidence about the scale of resources rich countries are prepared to negotiate, then they can turn their attention to how they might achieve emissions reductions in their own countries, and work can begin on how a global climate fund could operate.  These detailed negotiations must not be left till the eleventh hour in Copenhagen," he said.

Mr Hill said it was crucial that this finance be over and above existing aid commitments otherwise decades of development gains would be reversed and millions more people would be plunged deeper into poverty.

He said the Copenhagen framework also needed to help enable smallholder farmers make agriculture resilient to climate impacts and achieve emissions reductions from the sector.

Notes to editors

Oxfam calculates that at least US $150 billion is needed to help people in developing countries adapt to the escalating impacts of climate change and reduce their emissions, and proposes a fair and transparent global fund operated through the UN system.

The Asian Development Bank estimates that for Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam as a whole, the cost of adaptation for the agriculture and coastal zones (mainly for the construction of sea walls and development of drought and heat-resistant crops) will be about US $5 billion per year by 2020 on average.

Investment in adaptation will pay off, with the annual benefit in terms of avoided damage from climate change likely to exceed the annual cost after 2050.

For the next two weeks, Oxfam will have policy experts and spokespeople in Bangkok from countries including Indonesia, Bangladesh, Germany, Spain, the US, the Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand, Malawi, Australia and New Zealand.  We can arrange interviews in a range of languages.

Events throughout the two weeks organised by civil society groups including Oxfam include:

Thursday 1 October:

Women's Rally, Bangkok, 11am - 1pm (Rachadamnoen Road and around the UNESCAP building)

Celebrities including Miriam Quiambao (Philippines) and Oppie Andaresta (Indonesia) will join with hundreds of women from across the region to raise awareness of the disproportionate impact climate change has on women;

Tuesday 6 October:

Asian People's Climate Court, Bangkok, 9am - 11am

People from countries including Thailand, Bangladesh, Philippines, Indonesia and Nepal will tell their personal stories of how climate change is affecting them now, in front of a judge and panel of experts.

Interviews are available.

###

Oxfam International is a confederation of 13 like-minded organizations working together and with partners and allies around the world to bring about lasting change. Oxfam works directly with communities and that seeks to influence the powerful to ensure that poor people can improve their lives and livelihoods and have a say in decisions that affect them.

---

Oxfam International Links:

• Home
• Press Center
• Action Center

Further Reading:
BANNER STORY: President warns hoarders
Shared via AddThis
RP seeks typhoon aid, battles to avoid backlash
Philippine Embassy, Canberra, Australia
Philippines typhoon: Caritas responds

RON MERKEL QC ON THE NT INTERVENTION IN THE HIGH COURT

Click to enlarge

Monday 5 October, 6.30 pm: Public Lecture:  Hon Ron Merkel, QC, will speak about his experiences in challenging the NT Intervention in the High Court, as well as the takeover of Alice Springs Town Camps in the Fed Court this year. Room GO8, University of Melbourne Law School. Register free at http://www.mulss.com/social.justice/

FLOW (for love of water) AT FRANKSTON 30 SEPT

Wednesday 30 September, 7.30 pm: Film Screening: For the Love of Water (Flow). Is water a human right? Maud Barlow and Dr Vendana Shiva will discuss the global impacts of water privatisation. Uniting Church, 16 High St, Frankston. Organised by Friends of Frankston. For more info ph 8774 8170 or email richardlaverack@hotmail.com  


Irena Salina's award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - The World Water Crisis.

Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.

Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and human scale, and the film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water grab, while begging the question 'CAN ANYONE REALLY OWN WATER?'

Beyond identifying the problem, FLOW also gives viewers a look at the people and institutions providing practical solutions to the water crisis and those developing new technologies, which are fast becoming blueprints for a successful global and economic turnaround. 

End of the line: come and see the movie about oceans and a world without fish

Premiere screening 

"The end of the line"

Hunted almost to extinction in the 19th century, the endangered Australian Sea Lion is still being caught today as by-catch in shark fishing nets. This iconic marine mammal along with many other species will benefit from a network of large marine sanctuaries in South Australian and adjacent commonwealth waters. 

Photo: Valerie Taylor.

Join us 

at this special film screening

The ultimate power of ‘The End of the Line’ is that it moves beyond doomsday rhetoric to proffer real solutions. Chillingly topical, ‘The End of the Line’ drives home the message: theclock is ticking, and the time to act is now.

Premiered at Sundance Film Festival this year, the powerful new film The End of the Line uses brilliant underwater footage, sweeping cinematography and interviews with world leading scientists, activists and fishermen to tell the story of the devastating impacts of overfishing on our oceans and the simple solutions to the problem.

Where: Capitol Theatre - 113 Swanston Street, Melbourne.

When: Friday 2 October - Doors open 6:30pm, Film @ 7pm

Bookings essential:  bookings@green-pictures.com

Entry: $10 Adult, $6 Concession & students, Under 16 free.

This promotional screening is brought to you by The Wilderness Society and Save our Marine life

Visit the official website of the film The End of the Line to find out more.

For more information, please contact:

Campaign Coordinator

The Wilderness Society Victoria Inc

288 Brunswick St

Fitzroy, Vic, 3065

Phone: 03 9038 0888

Questions and Answers with Rob Hulls, Attorney-General, Victoria

Further to my previous post here, this is the follow up.

Here is the question I asked Rob Hulls with his reply on the Live Q&A.

2:47

[Comment From Miss Eagle] Rob, I am concerned about water trading and the way such a precious resource has now become a casino leading to haves and have nots. I understand it came about because of a COAG decision. How can we legally get out of this mess whereby we unbundled land from water and get land and water connected again?

2:48

Rob Hulls:  Water unbundling is an important reform that has given irrigators more options to manage their way through the drought, whether by supplementing low allocations, by buying more water, or selling water they don't need, or for cash flow. The drought impacts on individual irrigators would be much more severe if they did not have this flexibility. ~~~~~~~ Now I thought this was a bit ho-hum to say the least.  The response displayed no depth of understanding of the issue and was a fob-off in tune with the party line.  Here is what some others thought. That great Networker and Landscaper Ed said: It's Victorian government spin again.  The purpose of unbundling water from land is to create a new economy, using our commonly owned water for their and corporate profits.  It does not solve the real issues facing farmers, who (especially the small farm enterprisers) are price takers and not price makers. Mr Hulls' spin rides right over the issues that have put farmers in this position - He does not acknowledge Overallocation of water by the States and especially by Victoria, much of which still is held as sleeper licences still able to be activated. The disconnection between people who own water rights without owning or managing land, which necessarily leads to further misuse of water and water rights. The environmental devastation which is occurring now, land and water unbundling occurs, leading away from stewardship of our natural resources. Failure of Victorian government to initiate and continue upgrading of infrastructure which it was their charter to do under the Water Act since that infrastructure was created. Failure by Victorian government to respond in kind and in concert with the enormous advances farmers made in response to successive industry restructures in farm enterprises dependent on irrigation water. Failure by Victorian government to complement their research organisations, which had farmers striding forward with irrigation efficiency advances, so that their irrigation efficiency is just about at peak levels for the kinds of irrigation they carry out. Failure of the Victorian government to do the right thing by farmers and help pay for the next stage of irrigation water use efficiency, which is to lay drip line ($20,000/ha) under pasture and many other forms of agricultural production. Failure of the Victorian government to sufficiently insist on changing inefficient irrigation land use to the most efficient protein producing enterprises for irrigation. - The kind of land use most suitable and efficient depends on a range of conditions, such as soil type, water table levels, markets and so on. Failure of the Victorian government to do its due diligence on the level and cost/benefit of the irrigation infrastructure upgrades that they have started (only 1% or so of which is completed). Failure of the Victorian government to have independent auditing done of both financial and water efficiency targets and achievements. Failure of the Victorian government to honor its commitments to restoring the Snowy River environmental flows. Failure of the Victorian government to honor its responsibility to flush the Murray following the recent blue green algae outbreak. Failure of the Victorian government to do due diligence on the water meter issue, which has now turned to a debacle, at great taxpayer cost, because the new electronic water meters cannot function accurately in dirty water. The new water meters giving readings of water use where there is no water use happening. Failure of the Victorian government to be transparent and proactive in detailing the environment and energy costs of it big projects, e.g. North-South Sugarloaf Pipeline, Bendigo Ballarat superpipe and Waranga basin low level pumping, and water diversions from Lake Nagambie to Waranga Basin. Failure of the Victorian government to even mention or admit that it has another sizeable pipeline recently put in from the Goulburn River at Trawool to take more water out of the Goulburn River to Broadford and Wallan, and thence to the water network which will end with water going all the way to the new suburbs it is creating in the Melbourne and Geelong super metropolis. Failure of the Victorian government to meaningfully recognise that the Goulburn Heritage River system is in such a degraded condition that the extraction of any water out of it for use in coastal cities will kill the future of the river and place a series of nails in the Murray River system. Ed Adamson DipAg MEnvSc Merrijig 3723 And from the indefatigible Maria in Mildura That is the pat answer they all give when asked about unbundling! The same question was asked at the water information forum in Mildura on Tuesday and the same answer given.  They do not seem to understand that it is NOT the drought that is the issue - we can deal with drought: it is the fact that the Murray-Darling Basin water system is over-allocated and with every drop being able to be sold, the market that they so praise has caused the over-allocation to be exacerbated. Previously not all water was used and it was left in the river (thought some of it might have been used elsewhere) and sleeper licenses were not an issue. When they put the cap on the MDB they capped it using a wet year as the ill-considered reference point instead of being cautious and calculating in a drought! In fact when they put the cap on the drought was already on its way! (as we now CSIRO has said the drought has been going for 15 years-or it climate change?) He has also forgotten that with cities and urban areas getting into the market, this prevents and discourages policies and strategies and actions that encourage more environmentally sustainable options being utilized and being adopted. This is short-sighted politically motivated response instead of long-term environmentally sustainable options. As the Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability has stated in his State of the Environment Report 2008 (December and summary attached): “Victoria is living beyond its resource means.” This includes water. I went to the Victorian Green paper on Climate Change info session Wednesday night and basically it can be boiled down to one main consideration: population growth. Until governments and communities understand that if we don’t curb population growth (keep Australia to 17 million-some professor was talking about this exact problem on radio National this morning) consumption of resources will only increase. How can it not? More people mean that they will demand more resources. In order to maintain a healthy natural environment we need to limit population growth world-wide as any other action such as cutting greenhouse gases etc is almost impossible if we do not consider that a glass can only be emptied and filled to a certain level before it runs out or over flows. Those are just SOME of my thoughts. Again if you don’t have a copy get a copy of ‘Water Resources Law’ by Alex Gardner, Richard Bartlett and Janice Gray (LexisNexis Butterworth 2009) which is fantastic as a resource book and explains it all. It might seems costly but think of the hours of research! Well worth it. I am finding it enlightening!

Multifaith in Melbourne

Last week was Multifaith Week in Melbourne.

On Sunday morning, I attended the Sikh Gurdwara at Blackburn

as a guest of my friend Jessiee Kaur Singh.

To find out more about Sikhism go here.

It was a beautiful experience.

The shrine pictured above contains the holy scripture entitled the Gurū Granth Sāhib

People come in (queues are separate for men and women and they sit separately),

place coins in a large receptacle, bow/kneel and go to their place of prayer.

Large screens are either side of the shrine with excerpts of the scripture

which are chanted.

The scriptures are displayed in the language of the Sikhs,

then in English, and then phonetically.

It was easy to chant along with the rest of the congregation.

Providing music and leading the chanting

are the three men pictured below.

The man behind the holy scripture read from the scripture.

There were announcements - but not in English, sadly.

And then little girls came around with boxes of tissue.

We took one and then a man came around with dollops of

sweet mixture from a bowl.  "Healing" whispered Jessiee.

A different take on Communion, thought I, since the Sacrament can

also be taken as Healing. 

Before the service I had seen people "laying the table" in a manner of speaking for lunch.

Each place was laid with a metal compartmentalised tray, a metal cup, and a spoon.

I counted sixteen places across eighteen rows.

But when I came from the service I found that there were a couple more rows.

Then where we ate was at tables.

It looks like the place settings go on forever.

I estimated that there were about 400 to 500 people fed at this sitting.

Apparently, about 5000 meals are served a week on

Wednesdays and Sundays.

Although, if people come to the Gurdwara and need

food on other days, they will be provided for.

Needless to say, with such crowds hand-washing

is important and extensive hand-washing facilities are provided.

All this happens by donation and helpers are on a rotation roster.

I spoke to a group of women relaxing after their morning roster.

They do the last Sunday of the month.

As you can see from the list of needs above, all this is donated.

~~~~

After our meal, we went across to the Darebin Parklands

for an Aboriginal tree-planting ceremony.

Pictured above are Jessie Kaur Singh of

GreenFaith Australia, COMMON, and the Global Dialogue Foundatio;

Reg Blow of the Maya Healing Centre; and John Bellavance of

Voices for Peace.

The Mayor of Darebin, Councillor Diana Asmar,

was a beautiful and impressive woman

as she commemorated and committed the

Peace Tree to the earth.

Uncle Reg prays for the tree with the didj.