(Actually, three parts)
Speaking of Local Councils and their regulations, that is another area that should be addressed as mentioned in a couple of the posts above (Gold Coast, etc.). I also heard of another set where each year the council will require the storage connection to be visibly inspected by 1.) council inspector, 2.) licensed plumber, and 3.) licensed electrician. All 3 will need to produce a document stating the tank and connection is working. A plumber and sparky have an average flat fee of say $100, not sure what council will do - let's give benefit of $25. So each year you will be faced with a $225 fee. If Government is serious about getting on top of our water situation this sort of rubbish has to stop. Alternatively, vote these ratbags out at the next council elections.

I understand completely what you are saying about political lack of vision in relation to population density though I think that is another broader argument of which water and energy are a part. I do not believe people should be penalised for wanting to have a basic necessity on tap, so to speak. I really am tired of the user-pay argument.

This is all fine Rhett. But it is not at odds with a user-pays setup for water drawn from the public system. In fact it complements it.

As I said, firstly water has been grossly under-priced and secondly, higher prices would help spur on the various water-saving and alternative-source strategies.

We can’t really escape the fact that the affluent will get it easy while the battlers will, well battle. I suppose we could gear water-pricing to income, but still the affluent would come out well ahead. The same applies with the ability to install water tanks and so on, unless it is all paid for via taxes and rates, which could essentially mean that the lower income-earners would be subsidizing the affluent? Spreading it out over a long period on the rates bill would perhaps help. This would of course be passed on as rental increases to those who don’t own the property they live in.

It would be nice if all residents had tanks. But let’s be careful. The battlers would be losing out again, generally speaking, for a number of reasons. For one, they would on average have less space to install large tanks compared to the wealthy.

But notwithstanding some inequality on the financial side, all of this is good.

However, there are other problems. One is the potential trap of over-reliance of on tanks when real drought conditions occur, as expressed in an earlier post on this thread.

The other is of the still rapidly increasing number of water-consumers in nearly all of our water-stressed cities and regions.

While you said that you understand my point, I think that you don’t pay it sufficient attention. It is of absolutely critical importance that we stabilize the overall demand on highly stressed resources, is it not?

“More than anything else we have a right to water.”

Yes. And we must surely be able to expect our elected leaders to protect this right, by limiting the ever-increasing pressure on water resources, as an essential part of the overall strategy.

Ludwig,
I am not concerned about the affluent. They will always be ahead of the game. It is everybody else. You know - the rest of us. The majority. Charging higher prices for an absolute essential causes nothing but hardship and the harder up you already are, the harder it will be. Not on.

People are paying attention and are already doing their bit to help minimise demand. For instance, Sydney's annual water consumption is the same now as it was in 1974, when there were 1.2 million fewer residents. But only 32,000 rebates have been paid for installing rainwater tanks.

That's why I am saying water storage systems should be mandated. That's why I'm saying it should be made easily affordable.

A 9 - 15,000litre system does not take up a lot of space, nor cost an arm and a leg. The cost spread over 10-15yrs. would not increase rents because it would be negligible and also tax deductible for the owner. Roof run-off storage systems would give communities more protection than a dozen dams. They become their own little catchment areas.

I don't expect our elected leaders to protect this right by limiting the ever-increasing pressure on water resources. I expect them to do something constructive; something that does not include paying more for an essential we already pay for.

Rhett, I still can’t see how the user-pays concept for water from the stressed public storage and infrastructure is at odds with improving efficiency and developing alternative sources. These things are complimentary.

Yes water is a fundamental resource. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t all be paying a realistic price for its provision and security, and that this price shouldn’t go up as the resource becomes more stressed and precious.

I just can’t agree that user-pays has no place here. It seems to me to be an essential part of the whole water infrastructure redevelopment strategy.

If we all pay standard water rates, then some are strongly subsidizing others, and there is scant motivation for those who are using quantities well within their allotment to improve their efficiency.

Yes I think storage systems should be mandated. My local council has just voted this down and maintains the position that it is the property-owner’s choice.

“I don't expect our elected leaders to protect this right by limiting the ever-increasing pressure on water resources.”

Why not? How can they just simply allow this huge aspect of the whole subject to continue growing at a rapid rate with no end in sight, especially when they have shown that they are incapable in numerous ways of planning properly for growing populations!

We really MUST insist that our local, state and federal governments address the absurdity of continuous unending expansion in an environment of severely stressed basic resources. Of course it is not THE answer to the issue. But it IS an essential part of the answer.

Rhett, you haven’t addressed my concerns about an over-reliance on tanks possibly leading to critical problems in really dry times. Do you think my concern about this real?

Ludwig,

I can see that an over reliance on tanks could be a problem.
As a child I can remember living in a NSW town that had a really putrid water supply, or rather the water that it supplied was on the nose.
It was only used for the gardens and then only if necessary. When there was not enough rain things could become grim and the water-carts would start rumbling around town.
Many years later, in the 1970s, I lived in a small town to the south of Bathurst and we were dependent on tank water as there was no piped supply.

Visitors from Bathurst and especially those from Sydney were watched
like hawks whenever they went near a water tap.