After a shift with the Elwood Canal Action Team this week I was impressed with my litter collect in just an hour and a bit. Some 4 tonnes of litter a year is estimated to flow into the bay from Elster Creek. In the last 9 months, some 1.2 tonnes was collected by the team but likely only 1/3 of what flows to the bay. Thanks to the team, attention has been drawn to it and now Melbourne Water is collecting litter fortnightly instead of bi-monthly, enabling better flow. Disturbingly the Elster Creek diversion drain does not have a litter trap. Sea life is at risk and with it the integrity of our bay fish and chips… Shockingly, apparently no litter trap is planned for the proposed Elwood Main Drain Duplication project.
Addressing clogged waterways to improve flow is a key action in any Climate Emergency Action Plan but it’s missing from our seriously delayed plan which only emerged 4 years after council declared a Climate Emergency. However, that was 26 years after, working at the Environment Protection Authority, I issued 2 media releases warning of the dangers of greenhouse gases. It was also 18 years after I joined council’s first Sustainability Reference Group, the impact of which I can barely see in the neighbourhood. Some more planting on the foreshore and street lighting upgrades and that’s about it. No proper bike lanes, no buses meeting trains or trams, a canal without proper flow clogged with rubbish, no obvious greater tree canopy and so on. The current climate plan reads as essentially a plan for a plan with no year-on-year targets. Unbelievably, inundation is only an afterthought with talk of working with the Government to “understand it and develop ideas to reduce [it]”!
It all lacks the sense of urgency and ambition the UN is begging for. The community must play its own role too but council, as the tier of government closest to the people, has a critical role in education, not just “advocacy” to the State on it as proposed. As the first area of the bay to be affected by sea-level rise already upon us (10cm now and at least 24cm identified as coming) council should be driving all of this given that property damage is identified. This would be a high priority for me. Let’s get serious on climate and then we can more confidently get onto all the other related problems. We must shore ourselves up first and, therein, engender hope in these challenging times.
Sally Gibson, Independent for Elwood
sallygibson.com.au
