Hear Hear ! A great article, Jolyon. Why are Queensland and NSW behind in the use of smart technology in urban areas ? I would have expected them to lead the way.

I do not believe it! How on earth can anyone talk about water-efficiency and conservation in SEQ without mentioning the very rapidly increasing demand?

Jolyon Burnett, you write; “By taking a holistic approach to its water management….”

But you completely fail to take a holistic approach, by failing to even mention this enormous part of the problem. Isn’t it as obvious as the nose on your face that if population growth continues at anything like the current rate, water conservation measures just aren’t going to relieve the pressure on our water resources?

Even if we manage to improve per-capita efficiency by say 25%, and the population increases by 33%, we will have gained precisely nothing. And the chances of winning a 25% improvement are small, while the prospects of a 33% increase in usage are almost guaranteed, and within a pretty short timeframe.

In the current climate of rapid growth, all we are doing by improving per-capita water-use efficiency, is making space available for more people under the same water-provision infrastructure. Improvements in water-use, undertaken in isolation, are taking us in the wrong direction, because they are FACILITATING THIS UNSUSTAINABLE GROWTH.

SURELY, if we are to be smart about it, we MUST deal with this growth factor head-on.

If Queensland is to become the smart water state, it cannot just address improvements in water-use efficiency and infrastructure. This MUST be done in conjunction with limits to growth and an overall sustainability plan.

The hidden outcome of the gardening water restrictions is that the urban wildlife populations are being decimated. Tim Low, in "The New Nature" points out that on a continuum drawn from a CBD to a climax forest, the greatest species diversity and the greatest animal density will be found in the garden suburbs and the variegated residential/farming/forest interfaces. And these are the very places where the water restrictions are cutting deepest.

The entire leaf, bud and sap based food chains are heavily reliant on regular water and even under natural drought conditions, population declines of up to 80% have been recorded. Garden watering had traditionally served as a supply of refuges of last resort in drought from which populations were then able to more rapidly recover when better seasons returned.

And it is these core populations that are now being decimated by the water restrictions. But of course, none of the greens who campaigned against the Woolfdene Dam (vetoed by Goss) will ever accept any responsibility for the consequences of their actions. That site is now too settled to revisit but, for the record, if it had been built on schedule it would now be overflowing.

Mr Burnett, you say “Queensland's Growcom organisation is being effective in helping growers through its Water for Profit program which is assisted by the Queensland Government's Rural Water Use Efficiency Program.”

I search for the Qld Gov. site on rural water use efficiency program and discover it is called “Natural Resources, Mines and Water”
Why then do you choose to ask only the farming industry, that is our food production
Industry, and Urban that is home use of water, and not mention at all the Mines use of water. Perhaps you need to write us another essay on the economic use of water in the mineing industry?

I have to laugh when I see Townsville City Council receiving praise for water usage. Even when the Ross River Dam is down to about 5%, I still have to keep my windows up in my car to avoid being watered by the poorly-aimed sprinklers that water the road (rather than median strips) every night of the week. While Brisbane City Council has dug up its fountains and at least limited sprinkler usage, Townsville wastes water day and night to keep the grass green.

Ha haa yes Otokonoko. I had to restrain myself from saying just about the same thing.

The Townsville City Council has set an appalling example for years, despite its strong message to the community to conserve water. And local residents have let it be known long and loud.

This council has also got to be one of the worst in Australia for the absolutely rampant promotion of maximised urban and industrial growth. To do this when the Ross River Dam was perilously low was absurd. To do it at any time now that this dam has been shown to be clearly incapable of confidently supplying water to the city, and when water from the Burdekin Dam, some 180 km away, is extremely expensive to pump to Townsville, is just ludicrous in the extreme.