With no-one home water usage plummets

Seems to me that a target is a target is a target – if we’re in town we should be using more water.

Surely the government doesn’t want the community to underachieve?

I keep hearing that I have to save water. For who? I like my showers. Long ones.

We’ve got no lawn out the front, but we need little bit of lawn out the back for kiddy play equipment to sit on.

I think it is really wierd how maintaining any plants around the home has become such an environmental no-no.

A concrete jungle is hardly going to help the environment.

Summernats starts.
Bogans arrive in their hundreds.
Thousands flee the city.
Water use drops.

If the Tennent Dam was built, it would have filled up after the last couple of downpours – then we would have plenty of water. I object to this artificial water shortage thing that keeps getting foisted on us. Greenery is much better for the environment than dead trees and lawn, as it absorbs loads of carbon and keeps the place much cooler. Home grown food saves heaps in travel miles. We have enough water now and are more aware of water usage, so what’s the problem?

sepi said :

(Sepi)”I understood the need for restrictions early on, but now that we have more water, I would like to be able to water my garden.”

Yes, although it seems that many people have decided that a patch of lawn is no longer a politically correct thing to have. IMO, in the scheme of things suppling enough water for each house to have a small garden isn’t going to make a difference to the Murray-Darling’s problem, but would make a large difference to the quality of life in this city.

I have a patch of lawn out front, watered exclusively by a 10,000 litre water tank. I have frequently overheard mumbled tut-tutting people walking past, along the lines of ‘doesn’t that idiot know there’s a drought on?’

I did buy a sign saying ‘Tankwater in Use’, but on second thought I decided that many people derived benefit from having a good whinge, so I never put it up. (I’m community-minded that way.)

You need to water vegie seedlings daily in very hot weather, which we aren’t allowed to do.

And you can maintain gardens by watering every second day in the allowable times, but who is home and not busy, during every one of those times?

I understood the need for restrictions early on, but now that we have more water, I would like to be able to water my garden.

sepi said :

Dam levels are now over 52%, so gains of about 5% have been achieved during a continuing drought. I think it’s time for ACTEW to let us water our gardens enough to grow some vegies, maintain our trees and some grass for the kids to play on.

Sepi – those gains have been made in part as a result of ACTEW taking water from the Murrumbidgee river – they are not all the result of increased inflow to dams or low consumption. In effect, we’ve “stolen” water from people downstream (the Murrumbidgee does flow into the Murray ultimately, after all. Current water restrictions do allow anyone enough water to grow some vegies and maintain trees, by the way. However I take exception to the idea that we should be allowed to have green lawns before we have a sustainable source of water (other than taking more from the Murrumbidgee).

Sepi, Yes! “grow some vegies, maintain our trees and some grass for the kids to play on” – and restoration of parks and ovals, including adding deciduous shade, would also be smart. All good for lessening our impact on the environment. Grass is a wonderful water catcher, whereas paving and cement hold heat and rainwater just runs off into the stormwater drains instead of the water table.

I’ll be using my sprinkler this weekend, as we are in for a hot week.

I’d say more like 5% of Canberra maybe away.

Also it has poured with rain about once a week recently.