Celiac

I disagree that we (each individual) need to do everything we can to conserve water.

We have every right to reasonably freely use this resource. Not in a profligate way, but not in a highly restricted way either.

It is not necessarily true that everyone can contribute to saving water by using less themselves.

The trouble is, under the current mindset of rapid population growth – if we are all frugal, we will be facilitating more and more people becoming established under the same water-provision infrastructure. We will be playing along with this grossly unsustainable momentum, just as our government and big-business minders want us too. We will be rapidly worsening the problem.

In fact, it is very dangerous to think of the answer, or a large part of the answer, as progressively less per-capita usage, because this impinges more and more on our safety margin – the margin we need in really dry times. I mean, the more frugal we are under the current continuous growth regime, the more we are hooking ourselves in to always being that way and the less we will be able to further reduce our usage when we really need to.

It is good to have a large safety margin. That is, to be able to fairly freely use water, and to be able to become much more frugal when we really need to, during drought.

OK, so you will argue that we are in drought and need to be particularly frugal right now. But are we in drought? Firstly, we have to view the declining rainfall as the new norm, and develop a water-use regime on that basis. And secondly, rapid population growth continues. The number of consumers is still rapidly increasing, and in SEQ, Sydney and other places, directly in the water-stressed areas! So what’s the point in us being individually frugal?

What is the best the thing that we can all do to solve the water issue? Call for genuine sustainability, of which limits to population growth (nationally and in various cities and regions) is a primary necessity.

Part 1
Its interesting reading all the pros and cons on the debate of our dwindling water supply. Maybe if people took the " I am 100% responsible for myself " attitude they would realise that if you want something in life you need to create it for yourself. Australia is know globally as a dry place. Can I ask the question here. If you lived in a rural environment, who's responsibility is it if you don't drink. Does the Federal government or State government or Local government or whoever are they responsible for you .The answer is obviously NO. None of the above. So who is. Maybe you should look in the mirror and ask the same question again. I live on the Central Coast. Yes our water supply in our dam is running low ,currently its at 14%, although I should say only due to mismanagement, You see our local council decided to dump 25% of it out of the storage dam a few years ago, and yes since then we haven't had a lot of rain in our area, everywhere else but not in the dam. Part of the Central Coasts problem is we have a storage dam and not a catchment dam.
If you want to guarantee your own water then do something that will guarantee it. You have to catch your own supply, filter it and then life is not a problem for yourself and your family anymore. I'm sure 95% of the urban dwellers will not do this, as they tend to never take responsibility for themselves. Its always someone elses fault or responsibilty to take care of them.
My parents have been living in the country in a drought area, not on town water ,so they have to collect their own supply, for the last 15 years and they have never run out of water, although consistantly their neighbours do. How can that be so, could it be that they just manage it a little bit wiser and smarter, YES ,I think so.

Part 1
If you think your town water is clean, then do yourselves a favour. Put a filter on it and have a look at the filter element in a months time. It will absolutely disgust you what you will see. A black scummy slime. mmmmmmmmmmm sounds tasty doesnt it , but yes that is what you a currently drinking

So the real question is this ,what are you going to do about it yourself. Are you going to do something the day you turn on your house tap and nothing comes out , or are you going to take 100% responsibilty about your own personal life threatening problem and take steps today to solve it yourself.