KWR in het nieuws A. Segrave Anticipatory water governance key to sustainable infrastructure

“Expensive reactive decisions like building desalination plants could be avoided by using an anticipatory water governance approach, an international expert has said.
KWR Watercycle Research’s Andrew Segrave said by not taking an anticipatory approach, reactive and short-sighted decisions were made to install desalination plants around the country.
Segrave said speculation surrounding the poorly timed execution of the Wonthaggi desalination plant holds some merit.
“Ironically, the drought broke and there were floods during the construction phase of these plants,” he said.
“The plants themselves represent an enormous infrastructural investment based on predictive planning, they limit flexibility in the future and they epitomise a fragmented techno-centric solution; shifting the problem from the water sector to the energy sector and indirectly to climate change (the Wonthaggi plant uses about 90MW of electricity to operate).”
In a recent paper, Segrave and his colleagues have argued the historical approach to water governance has been ‘command and control’ and has failed on several fronts.”

(Citaat: KWR in het nieuws A. Segrave – Anticipatory water governance key to sustainable infraSTRUCTURE – www.awa.asn.au (2016)8 November, Website – 22 november 2016)