Albeit that there's a fair bit of 'motherhood' invested in this move of Ald. Williams’, it is a step in a positive direction. It is very clear that the community needs its various ‘authorities’ to be working collaboratively and cooperatively towards a multidimensional outcome and in inclusive ways. Its something that's been evident to many for a long time.
The first notion that needs to be put aside is the one that suggests the Launceston City Council ‘operation’ has anything like the wherewithal to progress this kind of initiative by itself. If it had, and the problem is very, very old, we might have seen a lot more attention paid to it and in holistic ways a long time before now – not a bit of it!
On the evidence, Council and its operational wing have been looking the other way for decades. For progress to be made and real solutions found, innovative solutions, an authority cum research mechanism needs to be put in place that takes into account the entire bio-region and from a holistic perspective.
Launceston is situated at a point where in excess of 20% of Tasmania's drainage passes the city by. This is all too often downplayed and even overplayed for various political purposes.
Mondays meeting may be a start just so long as any grandstanding is put to one side. This is an issue that exceeds politics and the futility of bureaucratic egotisms.
Ray Norman
Alderman Emma Williams to ask City of Launceston to support a broader Tamar River solution.
Holly Monery 19 Mar 2017, 3:30 p.m.
Evidence-based action, not politics or single-focus plans, is needed urgently to address river health within the Tamar Estuary, says Alderman Emma Williams.
ACTION NEEDED: City of Launceston Alderman Emma Williams is seeking a multi-party resolution on the estuary.
She will put forward a motion at Monday’s City of Launceston meeting, asking the council to call on the state government to convene a meeting to resolve the strategic and financial commitments of stakeholders including TasWater and Hydro Tasmania.
Alderman Williams said studies had shown the health of the Tamar was not only linked to sewage but a range of issues including contamination in the catchment area.
“In order to address those we need to sit down around the table with those agencies and bodies that can actually do something, instead of just talking one to one, we need to sit down as a group,” she said.
“The Tamar estuary is an issue for the community in Launceston … its about developing actions that we can actually undertake and recognising that its not about one-off quick fix, even though sewage treatment is not a one off thing.”
She said repeated Tamar Estuary and Esk Rivers Program reports into the health of the estuary indicate that the zone of the Tamar within the urban area of Launceston has a poor and degraded ecosystem health.
“These poor results represent not only a threat to environmental and human health, but other social and economic matters including tourism, lifestyle and business investment opportunities,” Alderman Williams said.
“A body of evidence-based work has been produced identifying influencing factors in the current state of the Tamar, including the TEER Water Quality Improvement Plan (2015). However, these factors can only be addressed by a multi-stakeholder approach to responsibilities.”
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