Drippers banned

look on the bright side. At least Stanhope isnt writing needless press releases on the ongoing problems of the three legged, toad licking, galloping homeless on the steppes of the mongolian plateau.

I’m fed up with these restrictions. I just want to keep the plants I’ve got, alive. I’m in a ‘civil disobedience’ mood a lot lately . . .

Build a bloody dam and forget the Arboretum, I say.

And what’s all this about ‘environmental flows’? How much gets sent down the river? Surely this must impact on the dam levels they keep banging on about?

Im confused..

From the article…

Though the current storage levels had enough water for about 112 years unrestricted use

No sane man will hold a beer in one hand and spend 3 hours watering their lawns with a hand held hose.. you’ll try it once and then say “Frack it”.

BTW, don’t you love the new plumbing regulation that impose a permanent water flow constrictor at the meter, so it is impossible to have more than one shower going on at the same time?

Connect a dipper system to shower\bath waste water then start taking longer showers.

I can’t say I’m really that worried about our yard – it won’t be that much of a hassle handwatering a few vege beds, the fruit trees will be on grey water, the small square of lawn will be irrigated with subsurface grey water (with a kick along from the evaporative cooler run-off in summer), and a couple of small tanks should take care of the chooks. I’m just generally opposed to regulatory arrangements that haven’t been thought through particularly well.

Great time for buying irrigation equipment if you can get it. Bunnings seem to be scaling down their irrigation area.

Anybody know who should I write to in the government to express my opposition to banning drip irrigation?

Never mind about this. Once we reach stage 3 I think people can start applying for a carve-out, oops, exemption. It seems these get handed out pretty liberally.

Here’s ActewAGL’s page on water conservation in the garden.

It advises installing drip irrigation as the ideal way to water Canberra’s clay soils since the rate of water penetration is so slow.

Intead, we will be forced to splash around large amounts of water that the soil can’t properly absorb in one hit.

Woody, here’s the ACT Govt email feedback page, for what it’s worth. I’ve already sent them some advice.

Woody, my advice would be to save your ink, or print out your letter, shred it, and use it to either compost your garden or for environment for your chooks.

Either way, this Government isn’t going to read your letter.

The most appropriate course of action is to apply for an irrigators licence so that you can take your garden produce down to the Jammo markets, which they can’t really deny on the basis of it’s a commerical enterprise.

With any luck, and enquiries in the right direction, you may also be able to get a grant to do it as well.

(check out the small business grants – aimed at assisting people who are starting businesses, a great source of initial capital)

(also check out irrigation/farming concessions and tax breaks on account of you’re a struggler and we need to give you a hand)

Anybody know who should I write to in the government to express my opposition to banning drip irrigation? It’s ridiculous to suggest that me standing around with a hose for hours a week is anywhere near as efficient as using computer-timed drippers for a fraction of that time.

Wasn’t aimed at Ari.

Just highlighting the sheer stupidity of banning drippers but allowing people to stand with a hose running for 2 x 3 hours every second day.

Which I think was also Ari’s point.

Barking-toad

Ari was simply highliting a basic human reaction to having draconian measures applied – To push the limit.

He is obvuiously frustrated by the Government’s inability to remember what policy decisions it made last week (Probably because those who made them no longer work there).

But what I still want to know, is why the Government are pushing to *increase* the population (and associated resource utilisation), as opposed to limiting population growth.

Reminds me, I read a thread somewhere about building a Nuclear power plant, a de-salination plant, and running a *long* pipeline. What say we propose the legislative assembly offices as the location of such a plant? Why should it be built out in S.A?

So, instead of turning on the drippers for a couple of hours once a week it will save more water if I stand with a hose for 6 hours every second day.

….rrright….

i agree ari. its bloody stupid.

Fuck ’em – I’ve spent hundreds of dollars installing efficient drip irrigation.

If I can’t use that then I’ll make it my mission in life to spend three hours every second evening spraying around as much water as possible by hand.

And I’m going to send a bill to Stanhope for the cost of the irrigation system.

Maybe we just eliminate the drips 🙂

what a load of crap. i take the time and effort to install drip irrigation systems (conscienciously following ACTEW advice) and now they tell me i cant use it? Whats the bet if i now go to the added expense of retrofitting a grey water system to my property (which i wanted to do anyway) that i wont be able to use that either as not enough water will be put back through the system.

why am i paying rates and water charges when its then dictated what i can and cant do?

Just let everything die and then spraypaint it green.

Works for me!

Has there ever been anything so unwieldy as this ‘odds and evens’ system – just water your plants by hand on Sunday and Wednesday between 7pm and 8pm would be too simple would it?

And in totaly unrelated news…

The Govmit will continue their policy on opening new areas for housing estates, especially in Canberras north, while at the same time in-filling what few green areas we used to have.

All in the name of gathering revenue from sales.

Not that this has *anything* to do with saving water… no, we would *never* be seen to limit population growth to reduce water usage…

Gosh, that may be as bad as permitting people to use dripper systems.