Jolyon

It is great to see correspondence on this very important issue.
It is broader than most people realize and although it has taken a crisis in Queensland for initiatives to come to the fro, they are a basis to work from.

One of the initiatives that has not been mentioned is the re-use of waste water in QLD.
I was recently privileged to be able to attend the IAA irrigation Conference in Brisbane and I can tell you the focus of the event was sustainable water use.

My interests for attending this conference were to be kept up to date on irrigation monitoring devices, weather station controlled systems and recycled water use.

On the final day, I attended a field day to see first hand, the initiatives that “Gold Coast Water” has undertaken in respect to the purification and distribution of grade B and A1 grade water from their sewage plants.

They have invested $30 million dollars in infrastructure to treat and distribute almost 20% of their waste water back to cane fields, as well as installing pipe work and metering to new subdivisions (not yet connected). The subdivision supply is for use on public open spaces, entry statements and each property in the estate are given a separate purple water meter and front garden tap for connection to irrigation systems as well as each house having their toilet cistern plumbed up to the waste water system.

On top of this initiative, 75km of mainline was installed to take treated water to hydrants were 120 tankers take water to golf courses and the like for use on turf and garden areas. This is currently “free water”.

Current restrictions are not perfect but we have to start from somewhere. Ideas or improvements must be lobbied at the appropriate organizations.

In Perth, we dump almost all our effluent to sea. Whilst doing this we are spending vast amounts of money building desalination plants. In my view, the money spent on desalination plants should rather be put into waste water treatment and re-distribution infrastructure. Dumping waste water is a waste!