Melbourne and Ballarat have very powerful deep leads under their streets.

Bendigo could have accessed water from the Campaspe Aquifier with no long expensive pipeline, but was refused by the relevant authority, which has very little knowledge of the area or potential of this Basin.

The Malmsbury-Bendigo main channel could receive good underground water in several places en route, from the Redesdale-Elphinstone Basin, with less than 5km of pipeline.

Coliban Water could access the Loddon Deep Lead at Marong, but apparently that too was put in the ‘‘too hard bin’’.

Coliban could clean out the Cockatoo Reservoir and refill it (or tanks) from a bore on site (Campaspe Basin), but preferred the band-aid answer of supply by tanker.

Recently, I was browsing through an old American Encyclopedia from the 1950s and found an interesting report on our continent’s ‘‘Great Artesian Basin, area 600,000 square miles, other artesian sources, etc, some near Melbourne.’’ Until hydrologists realise and accept the fact that the global system has a strong influence on our ground water, we will have to manage with a ‘‘Dark-Ages mentality’’ in this matter.

DAVID J. BARKLA, Castlemaine