Episode 12 - Why raising the Warragamba Dam wall raises serious concerns

Take me to the River

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In this episode, I speak with the Honourable Bob Debus, former Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment, Minister for the Arts for the Blue Mountains electorate and Chairperson for the Colong Foundation For Wilderness. We dive into a discussion about the proposal to raise the Warragamba Dam wall, and highlight the flawed rationale that a higher dam wall will protect residents in high flood risk areas in Western Sydney. Raising the dam wall will flood 6000 hectares of UN world heritage-listed national park and put at risk many threatened species. The area is also of high cultural significance for the Gundungurra people with over 1500 sites threatened by rising floodwaters.

We explore all these concerns and note that much of this landscape has the highest level of formal legal protection available for endangered ecosystems in Australia – can we just disregard the State, Federal and International obligations that were put in place to ensure actions like raising the dam wall would never go ahead?

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Take Me to the River is an Australian River Restoration Centre podcast production, hosted by Dr. Siwan Lovett and produced by Chris Walsh, with support from the rest of the ARRC Team. ✨
We acknowledge and honour Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the country on which we work, learn, and live. We respect and learn from Elders past, present and emerging, valuing their knowledge, insights and connections to the waterways we love and care for. 🖤💛❤️