Melburnians face the biggest overhaul in the supply of household water in decades with a new plan to change the cost of water and where it comes from. A ministerial advisory council report released today recommends dramatically altering the city's approach to water including expanding competition among government-owned water businesses and creating a water trading market, licensing private providers to offer not-for-drinking recycled and storm water to the home and the possibility of paying a premium on water bills to avoid restrictions. Instead of planning for massive new supply projects such as the Thomson Dam, north-south pipeline or the desalination plant, the new plan maximises existing water sources through a "metropolitan integrated water cycle strategy" to make new communities more water self-sufficient, leading to billions of dollars in infrastructure savings.
