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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-09-24 Daily Xml
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Ministerial Statement

WATER SURVEY

The Hon. K.A. MAYWALD (Chaffey—Minister for the River Murray, Minister for Water Security) (10:42): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.A. MAYWALD: I rise to provide further information to the house in response to a question raised by the member for MacKillop yesterday regarding community perception on drinking stormwater and pumping from the River Murray. In relation to stormwater, in line with SA Water's national and international leadership in water quality, SA Water was a key funding partner and host of the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Quality and Treatment. The centre conducted a national survey of community views on drinking recycled water in 2007, and the survey is available on its website, www.waterquality.crc.org.au.

The survey interviewed over 3,000 people across Australia, with 610 being from Adelaide. Recycled water was defined in the report as stormwater or wastewater treated to a suitable standard for use in homes or industry. There was strong support for using recycled water for non-food related purposes but a general reluctance to accept recycled water for food preparation or drinking. Initially, over 80 per cent of those interviewed were not willing to drink recycled water.

The survey was repeated after half the participants had been provided with factual information on recycling. This resulted in a slight increase in the acceptability of recycled water. Assurance that nothing could go wrong in the treatment process was regarded the most important factor in changing attitudes to drinking recycled water. However, one-third of the sample claimed that they could never be convinced that recycled water could be made safe enough to drink.

The study indicated that a significant portion of the community has concerns about drinking recycled water. It is also extremely important to advise the house of the fact that scientists involved in researching the suitability of stormwater for drinking water still advise that more research is needed before we can have confidence that the quality of water can be can be met on an ongoing basis.

In relation to pumping from the River Murray, the honourable member asked how much water was being pumped from the River Murray in this water year to the Adelaide Hills storages. This year, approximately 1.3 gigalitres are being pumped from the River Murray between 1 July and 22 September, compared with 36.1 gigalitres for the same period last year.

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