Deja Vu: Tanks For Federation Square

The Age

Thursday February 15, 2007

By CLAY LUCAS, CITY REPORTER

RAINWATER tanks will be fitted to Federation Square to flush toilets - a plan matching one the State Government dumped in 2002.

Had the tanks been installed then, they would by now have saved 18 million litres of water, the State Opposition says.

The tanks were dropped from the square's plans in 2002 to save $350,000 - compared with the eventual price tag of $450 million.

Tanks with a capacity of 300,000 litres will be installed this year and collect water from the roof of Champions, the Australian Racing Museum, on the square's southern side.

They will cost $200,000 to install, but will likely lead to a fall in Federation Square's water bill. Federation Square, which includes the National Gallery of Victoria and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, is among Melbourne's top 200 water users. Its utilities bill was $1.1 million last financial year.

"The original design for Federation Square included water tanks to recycle water for toilet flushing and watering gardens," Opposition water spokeswoman Louise Asher said. "The Labor Government dumped the water savings plan to cut costs.

"Six years after having made this ridiculous decision . . . Labor now decides that the taxpayer should fund water tanks."

When the Government decided to scrap the tanks, Melbourne's reservoirs were 70 per cent full. Today they are about 35 per cent full.

Government spokesman Tim Mitchell accused Ms Asher, a Kennett government minister, of hypocrisy. Had that government managed the project better, cost-cutting would not have been necessary, he said, saying the project was over budget when the Bracks Government took it over.

Federation Square management had no comment last night.

© 2007 The Age

Back to News Index | Back to Home