OUTGOING Coliban Water managing director Geoff Michell has left it till his final days in office to mutter arguably some of the most important words of his time at the helm of the water authority.
While they are his personal thoughts and not a reiteration of Coliban Water policy, the man who led Coliban Water through its toughest times, yet yesterday said what many of us have long thought _ that we should be drinking recycled water.
With the completion of the $41 million recycled water project, more than four billion litres of water is available for use on public gardens, sporting facilities and irrigation in the region.
But with a bit more investment it could also be available for drinking.
In a city that increasingly looks over the horizon and not to the skies for its water, we have to accept greater responsibility for developing and implementing sustainable solutions to the water shortage faced in our region.
Drinking recycled water is one way to do this, and something residents of cities in many other parts of the world do every day.
More than ever, we need to have a proper and informed debate about why we should (or should not) take water from the Bendigo Water Reclamation Plant into Sandhurst Reservoir before treating it so as to make it safe for human consumption.
It may well be contrary to State Government policy, but it may also be inevitable.