Stop using water, ok?

Well Im about to put a tank in so no clown on the hill can tell me when I can or can not water. I am amased that the ACT governemnt will let me water for 6 hours a day ( 7-10 and 19-22) every two days when I have installed an eletronic watering system and all I need is 15 minutes in the morning and 5 in the afternoon. Thats 140 minutes a week compared to the 1260 minutes that they allow me too. But Im sure that they would fine me if they caught the water on for a day that I am not allocated to.

I dont know how many houses have been build in the ACT over the past 10 years but I have not heard of any new dams going in. Infact I dont think that that have build a dam since the 60’s. And seeing the thought that they put into the disaster recovery plan for the ones that we have ( ie the Canberra bush fires ) Im not expecting too much from them despite the constant increase in rates.

In relation to the storm water, they did build a dam at the lower molongo treament plant becasue when the heavy rain do come they can not contain the amount of water and used to have to release millons of litres of untreated sewage into teh river. So they built a dam so they could contain it and pump it back later for treatment. Dont let them tell you that it is safe water, go down and have a look arond, the signs “do not enter the water” say it all.

“where does the water from the 1000s of hectares of asphalt parking lots and tile roofs go to in the ACT??”

Molonglo River, which becomes the Murrumbidgee (and is joined by all our lovely treated sewage), which then goes into Burrinjuck reservior and the storage point for the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area – see the link below on what the MIA produces.

http://www.mirrigation.com.au/AboutUs/Water_for_Life.htm

Whatever is left then moves on to the Murray – but there isn’t much left of that these days once you hit Wentworth due to no flow on the Darling (thanks Cubbie Station)

Into the river!

This is not a simple issue solved by building a new dam or adding water tanks. If we do not get a decent winter rain soon we are all in trouble. – I mean Australians not just Canberrians.
Our food will soon increase in price to levels not seen before just like bananas
Our attitude to water must change and we must treat it as a sacred resource.

Someone, please, a factoid – where does the water from the 1000s of hectares of asphalt parking lots and tile roofs go to in the ACT??

What’s more, if we really tighten up our water use then we have to release water out of the dams straight into the river to maintain environmental flows.

so the whole thing is completely freaking stupid.

The rain water goes back into the river to feed the people of Adelaide.

Tanks are great, but you’re right, $2.500+ for 5000 litres is a disincentive.(you don’t need a plumber if you’re not tapping into the mains).
Where does Canberra’s storm water go? Not the toilet stuff, but the rain run-off from everywhere when it occasionally rains.
Much of the mainstream debate has been reduced to two issues:
1. people not believing poo and piss can become Perrier. And
2.desalination plants, where it would be cheaper to give everyone beer for drinking and run a pipe from New Zealand for the gardens,
But where’s the storm water going? Most big cities it’s going straight into the ocean.

shauno,

Nice plan in a simcity kind of way. As i understand it though, the drought is caused by the temperature of the pacific ocean (el nino).

No reason why we can’t put in a nuclear powered beer fridge in the tasman instead!! 🙂

Here’s my grand plan for fixing this and nation building as a bonus.

We build a Nuclear power station in South Australia fed by the Olympic dam mine.

We then construct a massive canal or pipe project on a huge scale from the sea to Lake Eyre powered by the above mentioned power station.

Lake Eyre being below sea level has a few advantages. Now lake Eyre being kept full to the brim not seen since the year dot will evaporate massive quantities of water into the atmosphere which prevailing winds blow over towards the east