Swerv-o

Or maybe they could have excercised more control over the number of kids they had in the first place?

S

walaj

why? Costello is trying to encourage more babies, as they are need to (eventually) work and help fund an increasing aged population

Swerv-o

In Australia, yes, but globally no. Overpopulation without adequate resources is a massive problem. It's hardly responsible to go and have 6 kids when the country is in drought and there isn't enough water to go around the existing populace.

And why should a large family have their water cheaper than a small one? If you use more water, you should pay more for the services you use.

S

yanH

I'd agree and as water is metered this is already the case you pay more as you pay for the no of units you consume. What I am worried about is if there is a threshold that increases the price per unit at a particular volume. If this is only set at a per property level rather than at a number of individuals level then this will penalise people who share properties, ie families.

However this problem could also apply to groups of adults sharing a unit. If 4 or 5 people flat share then they could end up being penalised on the amount of water they use even though they individually use less than a couple living in an adjoining unit.

worzel

We just got a new desalination plant in Perth and generally we don't have the same problems - for now - but with a rapid population growth it is becoming more of an issue. I can't believe they are talking of spending billions on two more desalination plants, using the aquifers (water table) and even building a canal all the way from the Kimberley when waster water is flushed straight out to see. I know it doesn't sound nice drinking recycled water but they say in London that every glass of water has been through 7 people before you. At least reinject it into the aquifers.

JAJ

All relevant but subject to:

1. More dam capacity is the answer when rainfall is less frequent and/or more intense.

2. Most water is used by industry and agriculture. Beating up homeowners over domestic use (including pools) may make good politics for some, but doesn't really address the main issue.

Swerv-o

Yes, but as a household they will use more water. Four students sharing a unit will use more water than two people sharing a similar place...

S

Swerv-o

I was listening to the Aussie verion of Desert Island Discs last week, and they had a professor of water use studies from UNSW. He was a big advocate of recycling water. He claimed that much of the resistance to it is based on the terminology. Purified water sound much nicer than recycles water, yet can amount to much the same thing.

Personally I would be more than happy to drink recycled water - Modern reverse osmosis systems work on a molecular level, so the chances of even sigle celled microbes and organisms getting through is virtually non existant.

S

chels

I drank recycled water all the time back in England, hasn't done me any harm... xfuioueiofklycioeipruuceurwjioj huyoifjceurfij oh dear uiocv8ofieio what's happening to me niocuiouioeiou8o

cresta57

Yes I agree with point 1 in theory, however, the last decade should have taught us that having all our eggs in one basket i.e dams is not a viable solution.
The new dam proposed in Traveston [my back yard] by the Beattie govt. is itself a drought declared area. There has been insufficient rainfall to create any run off for 2 yrs yet Anna Bligh is telling the people of Brisbane that if the dam had been completed 2 yrs ago it would be 3/4 full by now. The local councils who at the moment control the water within the area have used exactly the same modeling software as the Qld govt to predict the capacity of the dam over the same period in time finding that to be completely untrue. Their results show the dam would have been at less than 5%. Peter Beatie and his deputy Ms Bligh are not only deliberately misleading the people of Brisbane they are using objection to the proposed dam as a means to diffuse the current crisis i.e "we'd love to give you more water but those bloody ferals up in Gympie object to us building the solution to all our water needs" It's a lie to tell people the Traveston dam will provide the water necessity for Brisbane when the city will run out of water [if the drought continues]well before any project up here could even be completed.

Regarding your second point;
I edited my first post to remove the figures I'd found for water consumption by industry as the website I found them on is no longer functioning. Approximate figures were however that private consumption of the potable supply were only a mere 15% of the actual water supplies the rest a massive 85% were used by industry. That seems to me to be a very high almost inconceivable figure hence my reluctance to post. I'll do some more digging around to see just how accurate the claim is.

As a footnote, I posted this on another thread, I still find it incredulous He [Peter Beattie]couldn't even send a minister to meet with probably the worlds most renown recycled water expert Professor Uri Shani [head of Israel's Water Authority]recently. With Brisbane & the rest of SE QLD desperately seeking a solution to their impending water crisis I'd have thought he'd be welcoming a visit from a bloke that has triumphed over the recent Israeli one.
Maybe he's pinning his hopes instead on a dam that won't even be holding water by the time Brisbane has run out?
Maybe if the federal govt. declare the Traveston dam unfeasible he'll sit back and tell the residents of Brisbane "I tried but..........."

BadgeIsBack

We can't TOP them up, which is the issue Tracey is talking about.

Tracey, you buy the best solar blanket to prevent evaporation loss and catch rain water off the roof into a tank with which to top it up. Or buy water to put in to a tank with which to top it up....(these may be illegal/soon to be illegal bit of a grey area...I'm not clear whether its a complete ban on topping pools up or a ban on using mains/ public water....)

And pray.

We've escaped by the skin of our teeth for the moment as the tanks arrive on Friday - and we have enough water in the pool, cooling temps, a blanket and finally rain.

chels

Is it raining now the latest restrictions have been brought in? Maybe more areas should introduce them (a modern day version of a rain dance)?

sassie

I don't wish to be pedantic, but you can actually top up existing pools between 4.00 pm and 7.00 pm - 3 days a week. After 1 July, you can only top up if you have a rainwater tank installed or a downpipe rainwater diverter AND also have 3 of the 4 water saving devices installed.

walaj

this is on the Australia forum and this thread has been/is about Australia, not the whole world.

Swerv-o

But it's still an issue. If the infrastructure isn't there to support a population increase, then what's the point of promoting it?

Right now the [water] infrastructure can't cope with the population that we have got, so why is Costello out there giving money away to people to have kids to increase it? What use is there in breeding children for the future if there is no water for them to drink now?

Costello would be far better off using that money to fund water infrastructure projects so that it is brought up to a level of sustainability for the existing and future populations. Unfortunately, voters are far more likely to appreciate/remember the $4k they received for having a kid than they are any vast water spending plan.

S