We want big sewerage pipes, traditional solutions that are guaranteed to work. Why is the program pushing cheaper, innovative sewerage solutions that might be risky?
Traditional solutions have been developed over the centuries for bigger towns. There are many reasons for this – for example, traditional solutions while expensive can be economical when costs are spread over a very large number of property owners. When only a limited number of property owners have to pay for and operate a full traditional scheme, costs can be enormous. Country towns have opportunities that cities don’t and these chances should be used: • Communities can seek solutions that better fit their needs ie they can develop schemes that allow reuse of water for the dry oval despite the drought. • They can seek softer engineering solutions such as the use of wetlands rather than a full treatment plant, so property owners pay less and an environmental and landscape asset is created for the town. • They can seek to tailor solutions to the properties that really have a problem while others can remain outside the scheme. • The schemes can be to the best possible scale, not sized fo
