Another day and another plan has been presented to fix the estuary. Time moves at a glacier pace when it comes to solving the issues faced by kanamaluka/Tamar Estuary.
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The state government on Sunday finally revealed its hand on what it plans to do to fix the problems caused by historic mismanagement of the estuary. A 10-year-plan that focuses on short, medium and long term goals to create a pedestrian precinct around both sides of the water's edge along with "river health improvement projects". While it's pleasing to see finally the government has presented its hand - it's a potential pipe dream. Realising these goals requires commitment from all three tiers of government.
However, all three levels of government have already stumped up as part of the Launceston City Deal, and with only a small improvement to show for it. Only a portion of the funds allocated in 2017 have actually been used to create improvement on the river banks, but water quality has not improved - as per the recent Tamar Estuary Report Card. Pushing money into beautifying the area in an effort to "reframe Launceston's relationship with the estuary" will not address the community's primary concern - with the increasing levels of sediment. A commitment to restore wetlands on the North Esk, to complement a funding commitment made by the federal Labor party during the election campaign will go some way to addressing sediment.
However, that part of the plan is still relatively in the wind - with no commitments yet on how that will look, where the wetlands will be restored and when the funds will flow from the feds. Of course, Rome wasn't built in a day, and it's important to recognise the commitment made by the state government to improving the estuary.
However, an opportunity was presented to ensure the concerns of the community, who have been critical in the past over the pace of change, were met. What the community is demanding is real action, bold and decisive action. But that kind of action is not what most community members will find in the 10-year-plan.
Hopefully an implementation plan will not be far behind which will set out the future trajectory. Human decisions created the issues in the Tamar and humans must make the decisions to solve it.
