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Water
You have to love water. Water is, without doubt, the most incredible substance we know. All life depends on it. Although water covers three quarters of our Earth’s surface, the freshwater that so much of life depends upon only makes up 1% of this water – just a tiny sliver scattered on this earth to support us all.
'Water, water every where, nor any drop to drink.'
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner', 1799
MYTHS
There is more than enough water to go around. We can drain our rivers at will and they always recover. We use water so wisely that we can’t possibly find any more savings.
FACTS
Fresh water is our most precious resource on earth. It is the essential ingredient for life on earth. We use it in almost everything we do. We depend on it for drinking, eating, energy and transport. We have become so used to its seeming abundance that, like a loving mum, we have come to take it for granted.
In Melbourne water levels in our dams are at historical lows. We have not even had an average rainfall for since 1996. We now have a new average much lower than our historical records. Our farms are getting drier, the runoff into our dams is slowing down – we have less water for everything.
Melbourne households are terrible at conserving water. Consider for a moment the recent global study by international water experts Hoekstra and Chapagain. They found that Victorian households held the worst record for water consumption. On average, each Melburnian uses 341,000 litres of water each year – that’s around 8 backyard swimming pools. We are the most carefree by a good distance on the driest continent on the planet! The closest to us is Canada in distant second with 279,000 litres per year. The Americans use 217,000 litres per person, the Chinese 26,000 and Bangladesh just 16,000 litres (half a backyard pool). The world average is 57,000 litres. We need to lift our game.
Using water tanks to capture all the rainfall from our roofs is a great start. Recycling our stormwater and wastewater would be a brilliant. Currently most of it just gets washed down the drain.
ARTICLES
Acid oceans
December 15th, 2009
This is not a good news story. But it is an extremely important one. We’re talking about ocean acidification. As if rising sea levels and increased extreme weather events weren’t bad enough. It turns out that climate change is also going take hold of our oceans in a big, scary way.
Water conservation an art form
March 2nd, 2010
The back yard of Alf and Heidi Grebien's home in Shirley St, Altona Meadow, is a virtual paradise of vegetation _ an immaculate and lovingly tended collection of lemon trees, roses, a banana plant, lush green lawn and row upon row of orchids _ almost 400 of them.
Melbourne Water to harness sewage power
August 25th, 2009
Melbourne Water will use the sewage at its Western Treatment Plant in Werribee to generate almost all of the facility's power needs. Two additional power generators, believed to cost about $4 million each, will be installed, meaning the plant will produce 95 per cent of its annual electricity needs by mid next year.
Global distribution of world's water
August 20th, 2009
Though water covers almost three quarters of the Earth’s surface, we can only drink 1% of it – just a tiny sliver scattered on this earth that supports us all.
Bottled water
July 29th, 2009
Put your hand up if you are happy to pay 1,000 times over the odds for anything. No hands showing? Now put your hand up if you would buy a bottle of something down at the shops for $2.50 that you can get for free with no effort. No hands showing? Well the hands should be up - this is what millions of us do every day. Are we fair-dinkum dills?
What is happening to our supplies in Melbourne?
July 28th, 2009
Well, according to the CSIRO our water resources are likely to keep shrinking due to growth in demand and less rainfall. This will affect our Melbourne environment, our farming and industry, and river flows and wetlands.
Snapshot
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