LOOKING AHEAD

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 154, 28 December 1936, Page 6

LOOKING AHEAD

WATER FOR SYDNEY

WARRAGAMBA RIVER PROJECT

(From "The .-Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, December 15. The Sydney Water Board has given ils chief engineer (Mr. Farnsworth) authority to investigate linking the Warragamba River with the Prospect Reservoir. Completion of the project would make the water supply to the metropolitan area secure, without restrictions, even should the metropolis experience a dry spell worse than any at present anticipated. For more than twenty years consideration has been given to proposals to construct a dam on the Warragamba River to make the Sydney water supply safe for more than fifty years ahead, even should the population of the metropolitan area increase to about 3,000,000. Mr. Farnsworth, in his report to_the Water Board, stated that it would lower the credit of the Water Board and would inflict severe hardship if the imposition of restrictions was considered at this stage. The position was that thefe were 50,176,000,000 gallons of water in storage. At the worst period of 'the drought in May, 1925, the Water Board had stored only 5,470,000,000 gallons—about one-ninth of the. present reserve—but no restrictions were imposed. At that time the Cordeaux and Avon dams were completed, but were empty. Now only the recently-completed Nepean; dam was empty. At the end of May and early in June, 1925, the drought, which had lasted more than two years, broke, and within a few weeks the dams were overflowing. It was exceedingly difficult on the data available to anticipate when the present dry spell would break, but even if the' following twelve months were drier than the past year there should for the summer of 1937 be 32,000,000,000 gallons an store. This would be sufficient, with only small rainfalls, to ensure a supply for a further two years. In the meantime, instead of considering the imposition of restrictions, the Water Board should give attention to engineering projects to meet future droughts. . Within ten years, Mr. Farnsworth added, it would be necessary for the Water Board to give serious consideration to the erection of a dam on the Warragamba. He recommended that immediate investigation be made regarding levels and a route for a pipeline from Warragamba to the Prospect Reservoir. The pipe-line would be needed eventually in any event. To meet an emergency it would be necessary also to build & diversion weir across the Warragamba. This, with the connecting pipe-line, would make the Sydney water supply secure while the larger dam was being constructed on a selected site on the Warragamba. The board decided to approve expenditure from next month on investigations into the Warragamba proposal, so that, if necessary, work might be put in hand by September, 1937. Mr. Farnsworth said that the pipe-line could be laid in about eighteen months from the beginning of the work.