The debate around the north-south pipeline sounds as if the project will involve a pipeline from a puddle to a muddle.

If we strip of all the political obfuscation, it seems that from a Bendigo point of view we should be talking about a north to north-east pipeline - meaning really north, like the sunshine state.

Then, to satisfy Melbourne, we could compromise and run a garden hose over the divide, so as to give them the benefit of the trickle-down effect.

We still look at the past and talk about drought when there is a real possibility that what we call drought has become the norm. We have just gone through a La Nia, which should more often than not bring above-average rain. It didn’t, and Victoria only just scrambled in on average, and even then with bad distribution. That does not augur well for the next El Nio when the present La Nia leaves its neutral phase later this year.

Political idiocy dictates that Melbourne will desalinate in the near future.

Sure, there are quite a few nations, particularly in the Middle East, that successfully desalinate, so why not Melbourne? Never mentioned is the fact that the energy input required for desalination is far greater for Melbourne than in the Middle East. There, the seawater is far warmer than our Southern Ocean stretching to Antarctica.

Melbourne has sufficient water, and all it needs to do is put the funds into recycling - and not produce extremely expensive salt.

If the pollies can’t get it right on water, what hope is there for doing sensible things about the mother of the problem, global warming.

Oops, must stay politically correct - climate change.

DAVID KLEIN,

Golden Square