Down the drain

By Tania Martin
FERNTREE Gully MP Nick Wakeling has accused the State Government of not caring about Victoria’s water crisis.
This comes after the Ferntree Gully CFA was denied funding for a $50,000 water tank and pump-recycling project.
But government CFA spokeswoman the State was very conscious of the need to save water, not only for firefighting but to ensure that the community has enough water for drinking, farming, industry and other uses.
Ferntree Gully CFA brigade Captain John Thompson said it was disappointing that the State Government had failed to come to the table with the cash.
He said this was the latest setback in the project after previously being denied federal funding.
In November last year Mr Wakeling called for the Government to consider funding for the project.
He told Parliament that the funding would allow for the installation two 22,500 litre water tanks, a 5000-litre filter and pump collection tank, and a diversion pit to collect water from existing stormwater drains.
Mr Wakeling said the diversion pit would be used to catch water that is currently going to waste.
He said the Ferntree Gully fire brigade currently has 10 pump operators who have to train at least two hours per month to maintain their skills.
“On average, pump training uses 2000 litres of water per person, per hour and Ferntree Gully therefore needs to use 40,000 litres of water per month in training,” Mr Wakeling told Parliament.
“But rainwater harvesting from tanks could reduce the need to use potable water in this training and ease the pressure on Melbourne’s water supplies.”
Mr Wakeling said the diversion pit would allow water used during pump training to be filtered and funnelled back into the tanks to be reused.
He said that the eight other brigades in the Knox area would also be able to use the Ferntree Gully site for training, leading to estimated water saving of up to 320,000 litres per month.
But In a recent letter to Mr Wakeling, Minister for Emergency Services Bob Cameron denied the brigade funding for the tanks because the application didn’t fit in line with the CFA policy for water tanks.
Mr Cameron said the CFA policy only provides for the installation of water tanks at all new and refurbished stations.
However, he said that the government CFA department was more than willing to help individual brigades with funding applications to a range of local, federal and private organisations.
But Mr Wakeling said this response clearly demonstrated that the State Government was not interested in solving the water crisis.
“Here we have a tangible solution for saving water and the Government’s response is that the application doesn’t fit in with some bureaucratic regulation and therefore misses out,” he said.
A CFA spokeswoman said all new CFA stations would include water tanks, however existing brigades which wish to install tanks should work with their regional office to achieve this goal.
“Eventually the CFA hopes to fit all existing stations with water tanks in the future,” the spokeswoman said.
But for now Mr Thompson said the brigade would have to reapply for Federal Government funding. He said the brigade was in a strange position of being eligible for small grants on an ongoing basis but was unable to get one substantial grant to undertake the project. “We want to get the money all at once so we can do the project as a whole, not little bits at a time,” he said.