“Population Australia’s ‘big threat’ ”, The Age, 24/1. A recently-released book, Overloading Australia, is the subject of this article; it’s unusual for the overpopulation issue to get such attention.
In a provocative attack on water conservation schemes, such as Melbourne’s Target 155, the book Overloading Australia urges Australians to ignore water conservation, forcing politicians to rethink population and immigration policy.
Focusing on perhaps the most taboo aspect of environmental debate, authors Mark O’Connor and William Lines have argued that pro-immigration and “baby bonus” policies are at odds with plans to reduce carbon emissions and secure water supplies.
“The task of simultaneously increasing population and achieving sustainability is impossible,” the book argues.
Predicting Australian cities will suffer more congestion, pollution, loss of biodiversity and diminished services, the authors argue there is no point conserving water “until we get restraint in population”.
“Overloading Australia – new book about Australia’s overpopulation problem”, We Can Do Better, with some extracts (and at one of the authors’ website).
“Target 155” is the latest Victorian Government attempt at water conservation (rather than going to stricter Stage 4), in which each individual is encouraged to use no more than 155 liters a day. While one should not waste water, the fact that cities in a First-World nation have to go on these measures demonstrates poor planning by State and Federal Governments.
Ignoring water conservation seems sacrilegious, but if the government won’t reduce population growth, then more water will be used by these increasing numbers of people no matter how stringent restrictions are. Gardens should not be denied water as the plants and trees provide shade and a cooling effect in urban environments that otherwise have too much concrete and paving (“It’s time literally to go green”, The Age, 23/1).
There was also a related article in The Age A2 section – not online, annoyingly, so I scanned it in below. Liberal MP Ms. Louise Asher criticizes the unreasonable water restrictions, saying that with proper Government planning, a First-World city should not have been reduced to this. I agree with her, but am not inclined to vote Liberal, who are just as untrustworthy as the Labor Party – it was Jeff Kennett’s Liberal Government who privatized public utilites such as water and public transport, something I regard as a crime against the State.
Staying alive
Denise Gadd
The Age, 24 January 2008When Age photographer Penny Stephens took a picture of Louise Asher watering a tree in her front garden, the Opposition water spokeswoman pointed out that it was recycled water from her kitchen sink, not straight from the tap.
The bits of coriander and spring onion that she had washed in a bowl the night before for an Asian salad could be seen floating in the watering can and were proof enough.
These days it wouldn’t pay to be caught using tap water for your garden outside the prescribed watering times. And certainly not for someone in Ms. Asher’s position.
While she adheres to the stage 3a water restrictions – using automatic drip systems and watering by hand for two hours, twice weekly – the member for Brighton is unimpressed by the State Government’s response to these dry times.
Governments, she says, are elected to provide five basic services: police, transport, schools, hospitals and water. A failure to provide the last, instead resorting to tough water restrictions and now a daily target for each person of 155 litres of water, is outrageous, Ms. Asher says.
Targeting the domestic user – in particular, gardeners – and some industries such as turf growers, who had lost up to 90 per cent of staff because of the ban on watering new lawns, is beyond the pale, she says.
And the strain of being asked to adhere to a daily water usage of 155 litres has added another dimension to the crisis.
“Gardens add to what Melbourne is – we were once the Garden State – and I do object to people inferring that there’s a hierarchy of water use and gardening’s low. In the end, I’m a liberal and it’s about choice.
“I think the Government should supply water for a metropolis like Melbourne. It has a constitutional responsibility to provide adequate water, and this one hasn’t.”
Ms. Asher says that since the 155-litre daily target was introduced in November, people have had to choose between personal hygiene and keeping their gardens alive. She wants to know how the figure was arrived at.
“Where did they get figure from? Was it plucked from the air or a guess – which I think it probably was. And does it account for overnight visitors? It’s a very tough figure, especially if you’ve got a garden.
(It is calculated using the city’s daily water use by its population. The usage increases on hot days.)
Ms. Asher says the target is not mandatory unlike water restrictions. “Most people in my electorate will be good citizens who want to do the right thing. So sometimes there will be circumstances where plants will unfortunately die, which is a great shame.
“We do have to abide by the restrictions and there is the legal power to be fined if you don’t, but not the 155 target. The trouble is, there will be some in the community who will use as much as they want (despite the target).”
Ms. Asher and her husband chose not to install a water tank, believing they could keep their garden alive with the twice-weekly watering sessions and by reusing water from the shower, washing machine and kitchen sink. But since the introduction of the 155 target, the situation has worsened and they are now contemplating a tank.
“I had an expensive spray system, which was converted to a dripper system once the 3a restrictions were introduced, but now I don’t think we can do basic cleanliness and have the dripper system running on the allotted days.”
Ms. Asher says she gets angry with the Government every time she lugs a bucket from the shower “like Third World conditions” to either throw down the toilet, instead of flushing it, or on the garden.
“Every time a person fills a bucket from the shower or reuses theft water from the kitchen sink, they should think of John Brumby and the massive system failure to provide water to a sophisticated international city like Melbourne.”
Former premier Steve Bracks’ pledge in 2002 that water was a major issue for his government, and the subsequent appointment of John Thwaites as the country’s first water minister to solve the problem, have not amounted to anything, Ms. Asher says.
“The Government has been condemned by its own rhetoric. In my opinion, they should have built a small desalination plant, a dam and also made more recycled water available.
“The Eastern Treatment Plant at Carrum still hasn’t been upgraded to produce class-A recycled water and it won’t come online until 2012.”
The restrictions have also come at a cost to many, including those in the turf industry, nurseries and consumers who have been urged to buy less water-hungry washing machines and dishwashers.
They have also affected gardeners’ pockets she says, not just when replacing dead shrubs and trees or turning to different species to cope with the drought and lack of water, but also when upgrading irrigation systems as the restrictions have increased.
While Ms. Asher does not believe we should go back to the bad old days of people hosing their driveways and overwatering their gardens, she says the Government also has to demonstrate that it is committed to providing Melburnians with a modern, first-class water supply that does not involve restrictions or a daily water target.
Failure to install water tanks at Southern Cross Station and Federation Square, despite their inclusion in the original designs, was bad planning, Ms. Asher says.
“We don’t live in a desert and even Dubai doesn’t have restrictions. The Government has deferred investment and thought it could get away with it, praying for rain – and it hasn’t come.”
Allocating water is not an option, she says. “Melbourne is a modern city. There should be water for people to have showers, clean clothes and wash your hair. That’s basic hygiene. What’s wrong with that? If people don’t want to wash every day that’s their choice.”
The long-term use of grey water on gardens was an issue for plants and Victoria’s water tables, and Ms. Asher does not blame people for sinking bores to keep their gardens alive.
“It’s about amenity and lifestyle and if someone wants a garden and a swimming pool, they should be able to have one.
“We live in a society where people are allowed to choose and if gardening is your leisure activity and you like to have one, that is your right.”
