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Infrastructure Australia Backs Water Projects Amid Climate Woes

Infrastructure Australia Backs Water Projects Amid Climate Woes

(Bloomberg) -- Australia’s main infrastructure body highlighted the need to better harness water resources and defend against coastal inundation in its annual list of priority initiatives for a nation grappling with climate change fallout.

Infrastructure Australia identified a new national water strategy among 147 proposals of national significance -- including 25 new initiatives, according to a statement released Wednesday. The prioritized project pipeline is worth more than A$58 billion ($38.4 billion), it added.

“Compounding issues of unprecedented infrastructure demand, severe drought and other environmental changes require a focus on our resilience strategies and a consensus on where to invest,” said Romilly Madew, chief executive of the body. “We’re expecting a range of solutions to be considered for capturing, managing and distributing water.”

Australia, the world’s driest inhabited continent, has been scorched by a multi-year drought that left parched countryside vulnerable to wildfires that erupted over summer. While parts of the east coast have since had rains, the lack of infrastructure to harness the precipitation is pressing as some country towns run short of drinking water.

Australia’s regions are also a focus of the list, including the need to improve mobile telecommunications coverage in remote areas and regional road safety, the nation’s infrastructure adviser said.

“Staying connected requires not only safe and efficient transport options, but also ensuring our towns and regional communities have the same access to telecommunications as the rest of Australia,” Madew said. “This is to also provide people with reliable access to electronic payment systems, emergency alerts, technology innovations and other critical services.”

Infrastructure Australia’s initiatives come against the backdrop of a government resisting calls to take advantage of record low borrowing costs to step up spending on long-term projects. It maintains that investment in roads, railways and bridges in urban areas is already at full capacity and further work isn’t practical.

Central bank chief Philip Lowe has long maintained that potential regional projects or upgrades of existing infrastructure could support employment and growth outside the cities and improve the nation’s lackluster productivity.

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Heath in Sydney at mheath1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Jackson at pjackson53@bloomberg.net

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