James Pittock, profesor a la Fenner School of Environtment
"The main cause is La Niña," says the director of the Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions at Australia National University. This phenomenon causes Pacific currents to heat the ocean, accelerating condensation in the air and increasing precipitation on the Australian east coast. In 28 days of July, Sydney has registered 402 litres/m² and so far this year 1,949. It is three times the average of London or Barcelona.
Howden recalls that climate change plays its role: at a higher temperature of the atmosphere, the air is capable of collecting more water, 7% more for each degree and according to the Bureau of Meteorology the average temperature has risen in Australia 1, 47ºC since 1910. "If this is happening with 1 degree, the real concern is what will happen if we let the temperature rise 2, 3 or 4 degrees," he concludes.
On July 3 in Windsor, 46.1 km from Sydney, the water reached 13.7 meters and there were thousands of evacuations. It is one of the most affected areas along with Richmond or Pernith, which form the Hawkesbury/Nepean valley, where 134,000 people live and a key area to win elections. That is why the NSW premier, the Liberal Dominic Perrottet, proposes raising the Warragamba reservoir by 14 meters, which during the floods had to release the equivalent of half the water in Sydney Harbor per day.
But the initiative does not convince scientists. Stuart Khan, Professor of Civil Engineering at UNSW acknowledges that it would be better to reduce dependence on rain with desalination plants and recycling plants, even if it is an unpopular decision: "No one wants to be the idiot who released water before the drought," he adds. According to Pittock, this is "madness" and stresses that "a good part of the ministers are related to the builders."
