Once the smoke clears, polluted dams will be a serious concern.

JOHN Brumby says he will set up a wide-ranging royal commission to examine every aspect of the terrifying bushfires that have swept Melbourne's water catchment areas, costing around 200 lives, destroying property worth around $1.5 billion, traumatising a nation and putting the impact of the financial crisis in perspective.

The consequences of this fire will directly affect the development of Melbourne for at least a decade and perhaps longer unless there is a clear-eyed, unsentimental analysis of the likely consequences, starting with a willingness to look at the three pillars of government water policy  the north-south pipeline, the Wonthaggi desalination plant and the privatisation of water to facilitate water trading across the state  the unstated policy that underpins both these toxic infrastructure projects.

What will hopefully emerge is an understanding of the impact of the fires on the catchment areas  specifically, the ash and fire retardant chemicals left in the wake of the firestorm that will be washed into the dams after the first big rainfall, as happened in Canberra after the 2003 bushfires.

The ACT water quality issue is still not resolved and it is anticipated that water from the ACT Corin Dam will not be restored to potable quality for another five to 10 years. Canberra has avoided catastrophe because it was able to swap its supply to an unaffected river catchment across the border in NSW.