mmg.com.au

Experienced civil engineer Steve Briggs has designed a plan which he says could solve water issues in the Murray-Darling Basin.

Mr Briggs, who is in Deniliquin working on the fishway project at Stevens Weir, has designed a desalination project which would feed water from the coastal Eden area to other parts of the basin.

He said it has the potential to provide for environmental and irrigation needs.

It would void the need for the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, which he believes must be rejected in its current form.

Mr Briggs said he was ‘‘100 per cent sure’’ his plan was the only solution in getting a balanced outcome in the basin.

‘‘The only solution is desalinated water,’’ he said.

‘‘My plan starts in Eden at the Towamba River and up to the Coolumbook River.

‘‘From there it (water) is reticulated to Jindabyne where it will tap into the Snowy Scheme, and then onto the valleys in the basin.

‘‘It has the potential to drought proof at least 15 per cent of the basin.’’

Mr Briggs said the plan would operate along the same lines as the Snowy Scheme, where water is stored and then released to generate power.

‘‘The concept of the Snowy was national security, and that is what this is all about.

‘‘By stage five or four it could be generating 5000 megalitres per day.

‘‘It solves all the problems because there will be enough dams to cover everything.

‘‘I’m 100 per cent convinced that one day this will have to be built.

‘‘The question is do we want to wait until it is too late, because it will take about 25 years.’’

Because of the potential of the basin plan to impact on production, environment and economies, Mr Briggs said ‘‘radical’ thinking was needed.

‘‘The basin plan has enormous potential for disaster.

‘‘There is clearly one agenda, and one agenda only - get the plan in, look after the environment and bugger the rest.

‘‘But it is going to stuff up the water, stuff up power supply and stuff our food up.

‘‘If we’re going to continue living in this country we have to do radical things in terms of getting a water supply.’’

The desalination plan is an expensive one, according to Mr Briggs, so it cannot progress without backing from the government.

Mr Briggs recently met with Member for Murray-Darling John Williams in Deniliquin to explain his project.