Murray mayors deny towns wasting water

Country mayors and Mildura icon Stefano de Pieri have dismissed as "misleading" data
suggesting residents living along the Murray River waste water.
Victorian government figures released on Monday show towns along the Murray River
are the state's largest residential water users.

Most towns across the state have ignored government pleas to slash household water
use, the figures indicate.
Only five areas out of 25 cut average water consumption in the 2008-09 financial
year when compared with the previous year.
Average daily water consumption per person jumped by more than one quarter in
Kilmore, north of Melbourne, and Mildura on the NSW-Victoria border.
However, people in Kilmore used an average of 178 litres per person each day
compared with 436 litres in Mildura - almost triple the amount Melburnians used.
Swan Hill and Shepparton used 389 and 332 litres per person per day respectively.
Melburnians cut their daily water use per person by 4.4 per cent to 159 litres,
close to the state government target of 155 litres.
Mildura mayor Glenn Milne said the data was misleading and should be weighted to
take into account the "two different worlds" of city and country, including climate
and soil type.
He said most people had evaporative coolers as they are the cheapest form of air
conditioning in one of the hottest and driest parts of the state.
"We are not washing our cars in the streets and letting it all wash down gutters.
That's not what's happening," Mr Milne told AAP.
"We rely heavily on water and we understand the value of it because our farmers have
had to buy it."
Celebrity chef de Pieri, who settled in Mildura in 1991, said it was misguided to
focus on residential water use when industry and irrigation used the majority of
water in the Murray-Darling Basin.
"It pushes 48 degrees here for days and days on end ... it is unbearable on certain
days," he told AAP.
"Obviously people take more showers and they use more water."
Almost 15 months after the Rudd government promised up to $3.7 billion for water
infrastructure projects, only $30 million has been handed over.
"Leave people alone, they use bugger-all water compared to what industry and
irrigation uses and get on with the infrastructure programs that will save enormous
amounts of water almost to make what people use in Mildura irrelevant," de Pieri
said.
Swan Hill mayor Greg Cruickshank echoed Mr Milne's concerns, saying one size does
not fit all with water policy.
Daylesford residents have saved the most in percentage terms, cutting their daily
consumption by more than one quarter to 171 litres per person.
People in Ballarat, Sunbury, Macedon and Melbourne are the lowest water users in the
state.
Water Minister Tim Holding said while the September rains were welcome, nobody
should be under the misapprehension that the drought is over.
"Our storages are still at record lows (33.9 per cent) for this time of the year,"
he said.