Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (11:51): I will make a brief contribution with regard to this water tank project at Bordertown. It is an interesting project that has just been outlined by the member for MacKillop, which will increase their storage capacity of groundwater for the town, which is essentially their sole available water resource for the town. It will increase that resource by about 20 times. However, again, it does work on a resource that does not want to be overallocated. Groundwater is one of those strange beasts. You cannot see it and you have to—and you do—trust the water scientists who deal with the studies of groundwater.

It interests me quite a bit. This is a $55 million project, and my understanding is there were some investigations around extending the Keith pipeline, which I believe was somewhere around $45 million or $46 million to extend that pipeline to Bordertown. The interest I have in that pipeline is that where I live, my property in Coomandook, is on an offshoot of that main pipeline. We have offshoot pipes running down the Dukes Highway and Parkin Hall Road at the back of my property. That is our total water supply because our groundwater is not potable.

We have been told that if an extension was put on there would be enough requirements for Bordertown. I do not know whether that accounts for any growth above the already strained industrial and town needs, because if it does not a pipeline would need to be built for over 160 kilometres from Tailem Bend and a whole new pipe put in, which would be a major construction that has not happened since the Keith pipeline was put in, in the late sixties, I believe, which was visionary at the time, to make sure that those of us from Tailem Bend to Keith, and just beyond Keith, could have potable water not just for our towns and households but for our stock, which are totally dependent on that water.

Yes, there are some people who have put in bores to use some saline water and blend it. That comes with a lot of expense and your own private desalination plant. It certainly has been done in places where people have a lot of stock, especially a lot of cattle that can get very, very thirsty, especially on a hot day, just to reduce the cost.

My inquiry would be to SA Water as to what the plans are into the future, acknowledging this puts a lot more water into storage for Bordertown but does not increase the volume available in total from those bores around the Cannawigara area. Whatever investigations are going to be put in place in the future for extending that water supply, I believe the only real way to do it is to extend the Keith pipeline. If that does not have enough capacity, all the members in the area will need to know, especially those of us who rely on that vital River Murray water just to survive, quite frankly.

We would like to know the outcomes of those investigations. I certainly note that this tank will absolutely increase the availability of just-in-time water by 20 times, which will be a huge boost. It is interesting that it comes in at a very close number to what we have been told in the past would be the extension of the Keith pipeline.