Taking a (short) Cold Shower

New Permanent Water Saving Regulations (= Water Restrictions) started here in Victoria today, and whilst I am all for preserving resources and "doing my bit", some of the new rules are a bit rich:

• You can only using manual watering systems (which I think means a hose) between 8 pm and 10 am
• And automatic watering systems between 10 pm and 10 am
• It is compulsory to fit your hose with a trigger nozzle
• You are not allowed to hose down paved areas
• Applying to fill a new pool.

Now I don't mind points four and five, they make sense.  Although before they let you fill your pool , you have to prove  how the volume of water required to fill the pool or spa will be, or has been, offset by water saved around the home.  How ridiculous is that?  But the stuff about watering your garden, seems a bit harsh though.

But what pisses me off about all of this is that such draconian interventions are all about managing demand; but rarely are ideas or legislation about managing and securing our supply of water spoken about. 

Is it any wonder that we have got ourselves in such a situation that requires these permanent rules.  We have watched our population grow dramatically over the last decade; but where has been the new dams and reservoirs?  Where has been the appropriate investment is supporting better water saving technologies?  Where has been the support for an effort to find a long-term desalinisation solution?  Some focus on these areas might have prevented the current situation; drought or no drought.

These "water saving regulations" wouldn't be so bad, if they were coupled with some pro-active movement on the side of securing or water supply, not just managing demand by limiting it.

Comments

[Zappy]

For pity's sake I haven't read such drivel since the Club of Rome came out and announced the date the world would end. Have you any idead how incredibly inefficeint desalination (please note the spelling of the word!!!) is? Look, we have the perfect parallel with another resource that is fast running out and that is oil. The world only got serious about conservation when the Egyptians raised the price by 400% in 1973 and then by 400% in 1979. This is what needs to happen here. We should not be growing the two thirstiest crops rice and cotton on the driest continent on earth but if we do, the growers should be paying the full cost to encourage greater conservation. It ain't rocket science, it's basic math.