ITL News Release
Managing water in today’s reality
Water is essential for life; it is and has to be present, available and usable.
The pressure on the environment from our continuing growth, irrefutable climate change and global food demand make water management a “no brainer” for all of us to adopt and implement.
The past has seen us assume water as a given. Now understood water is a scarce resource and cannot be assumed; governments and communities are implementing water sustainability programs to manage environmental and community needs.
The modernisation of irrigation assets in rural Australia goes a long way to enabling water allocation to be balanced between environmental and production needs. The mix of management, technology and environmental sustainability will see a dramatic change in rural Australia. The past will be very different to the future as modernisation plans are implemented.
Current infrastructure does not meet sustainable benchmarks; water losses are significant and often not measured, supply and demand are mismatched creating production inefficiencies and lost opportunities, with environmental sustainability incompatible with current infrastructure.
In the near future, water users will get a onetime water asset modernisation investment from governments. For this investment to benefit producer, community and the environment; asset modernisation must address usage, production and sustainability. There will be winners and losers as the new water reality is embraced. The winners will be those who adopt sustainable water modernisation plans.
ITL has developed a maintainable low cost irrigation lining system for use in modernisation matrix of water distribution and storage. With modernisation and implementation of telemetry, water allocations can be distributed through lined networks to meet exact requirements of the producer. Low flows, not possible in unlined channels, can be implemented so producers can grow crops to meet market conditions as and when demand dictates. It is estimated that allocations as low as 15-20%, if effectively delivered to the crop, could meet production requirements.
Lined channels create significant water savings. Estimated water losses in unlined channels can be as high as 60 to 80%. While piping of all of the irrigation channels would be ideal to manage water losses, it is not economically realistic. Lined channels only losses are evaporation; allowing for significant water to be returned to the environment to meet sustainably requirements. Current rural attitudes clearly reflect their understanding of sustainability for the survival of their social, economic and environmental networks. Rural communities are leading the charge in this new reality.
An example is Trangie Nevertire Irrigation Scheme (TNIS) in the central west of NSW. TNIS is developing their modernisation plans to meet community and environmental outcomes. Their distribution channel network is 220 kilometres of earthen channels. Built when water was a given, their assets need to be upgraded to meet the new reality. The water savings from their modernisation will deliver environmental sustainability while maximising commercial production opportunities.
The outcome will provide long term sustainability for their community. ITL, with others have been working with TNIS in trialing and demonstrating sustainable technologies to maximise water allocation and efficiencies. The use of sustainable technology allows producers to maintain assets for generations to come. TNIS will be able to meet the demand for global food production, ensuring their community survives in the new world of water.
ITL is working with many other organisations, communities and professionals to deliver or design new infrastructure assets to enable them to cost effectively employ new technology for long term sustainability in their communities.
February 2008
Infrastructure Technologies Limited.
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