As an example, water usage at our Surrey Hills house is about 5 litres per person per day thanks to our water tanks, which have just been topped up by the welcome rain. These tanks have now kept our house supplied for 7 years, so I really wonder why the Government is spending our money on huge energy hungry engineering projects such as the desalination plant and the ill-considered north south pipeline when they are not needed.
These risky, expensive and environmentally damaging projects should be the last options considered rather than the first.
Melbourne needs to better utilise its water sources. Storm water capture, recycling and stopping logging in our water catchments are all much better options for saving our water and much more affordable, but they are currently overlooked by government.
Safeguarding our water supply is important to us all. Government has a key role in choosing and developing sustainable water strategies and projects - such as legislating for decent water tanks for all new houses, assisting local councils to build suburban storm water capture facilities, and recycling and reusing water rather than flushing it out and polluting the ocean at Gunnamatta.
One wonders when they will listen to what the public want.
Links
- Water crisis requires more than a cold shower, The Age Editorial, November 25, 2008
4 comments:
One wonders when they will listen to what the public want.
Election time; or when The Greens are governing.
Yes indeed. Unfortunately there are those who think another empty dam to "catch all of Gippsland's flood water" is the answer! How many empty dams does it take to not supply a city of 4m people? We get just enough rain to keep small scale tanks filled, and recycling waste water is a guaranteed stream - which has the added benefit of eliminating polluting effluent. Good editorial in today's Age on this topic that I have added a link to.
Yeah...there is a lot of ignorance about water management. People think need to think counter-intuitively about water management in Australia if it is to be sustainable.
Incidentally, have you voted in the local council elections? I've done a post you might be interested in on it:
http://reubenville.blogspot.com/2008/11/council-elections-cazaly-ward.html
RVB, thanks for the link. Good to see your analysis of the candidates.
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