The water disconnect between city and country

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4379820.html

We have to start to think before we unconsciously consume. We have to take responsibility for our waste and use resources wisely. Turn off the taps, waste not and want not, and stop seeing farmers as the enemy, writes Sophie Love.

We’re celebrating 40mm of heaven sent out here on the farm. It’s not enough, but it’s a start.

After three months of no rain the earth was cracked, scorched and rock hard causing pain and joint problems for older humans and horses. All the grass was dead and the bush, normally throbbing with life, was eerily quiet.

The wild dogs and cats have been foraging closer to the river and we have seen wallabies with their heads ripped off and have feared for our lambs and cria. The paralysis ticks have been abnormally abundant and we have two alpacas down with paralysis and we are tick checking all stock daily.

The river is at least two feet lower than normal, and lower than where it sat at the end of a five year drought. After five years of relentless flooding, that hardly seems possible but it is true. The river is our lifeblood and watching it drop daily is very depressing, as is the lack of growth in what should be the surge of spring.

Down in the big smoke (Sydney) a few weeks ago I saw sprinklers merrily soaking lawns and, when I enquired, was told that no water restrictions were in place. Hello?

Turning on the radio in the car as I race around feeding animals (we can’t get radio in the house), I hear news readers and radio jocks lamenting the storms in capitals across NSW and Queensland while we, their country cousins, are dancing, singing and screaming with joy at the sound of rain on the roof.

The disconnect between city and country is scary enough around food, but when it comes to water, on one of the driest continents on earth, it is downright terrifying. Australians consume more water, per capita, than anywhere else on earth, yet we refuse to consume recycled or reclaimed water. Why?

The CSIRO stated way back in 2004 that Australia could lead the world in water recycling, and State and Federal governments alike have invested public money in feasibility studies over the past 10 years. The only implementation issue every study identifies is the Australian public’s outright rejection of treated waste water.

Across all States and Territories of Australia, recycled water is used for industry and irrigation of parks, playing fields and golf courses. NSW’s Goulbourn Valley sees the benefit in using nutrient rich recycled water for irrigation of farms in one of Australia’s natural food bowls. Our most populated city, Sydney, recycles just 3 per cent of its water.

As more and more Australians travel the globe, they have showered, bathed in, and drunk (doubtless in blissful ignorance) recycled waste water in England, Spain, Florida, California, Singapore, Arizona, Belgium etc. So why are Aussies baulking at boosting their domestic water supplies with recycled water?

Why are our city slickers still so stubborn? Too precious apparently to sully themselves with treated sewage. Still over 60 per cent of the water supplied to Australian homes becomes waste water, which is minimally treated and pumped straight out into our rivers and ocean outfalls. As a nation of beach goers and fish eaters do we still really think that is a good idea in 2012?

In addition, when it rains in the suburbs and cities all that glorious water is seen rushing down kerbsides and stormwater drains where it increases flood activity in rivers and pollution in the seascape. Why aren’t we harvesting it?

It is incredible that such a young country, with such a dynamic and diverse population, seems to be so far behind the rest of the world in harnessing our natural resources. How can we possibly become waterwise if we don’t pay a premium for water usage or accept the inevitable and embrace recycled water?

Federal and State governments need to be prepared to make hard choices, however unpopular they are, in order to safeguard aquifers, serve Australia’s population growth and increased water usage for generations to come.

We are no longer a few hundred reprobates in Sydney Cove, but a population of almost 23 million, still acting like children in our wanton wastage of water and resources. Most Australians use approximately 400 litres of water a day each – that’s 1.5 billion litres of water down the pan every day. I wonder how much rain needs to fall each and every day to supply that much water? Do city slickers ever think about where their water comes from? Or make the correlation between rain and water usage? Judging by the distress the radio announcers greet grey skies and precipitation with, I guess not.

Fringe dwellers have to stop pumping effluent out into the seascape and start pumping treated water back into their homes. Treated effluent can be used as fertiliser on outlying farms, or compressed into bricks to be used as solid bio fuel. Every home needs to provide its own water for plants and lawns from a home purchased rainwater tank (pray tell why city dwellers get rebates for rainwater tanks, while people in the country, who rely on rainwater for all their needs, get none?). Tap water in most Australian cities is already full of chemicals and fluoride, a few more won’t even be noticed. And for those who care about what they put in their bodies, there are plenty of filtration systems to detox the water for drinking.

As a global village and as a nation we have to start connecting with where all these things that we take for granted actually come from – milk, vegetables, meat, water, power, clothes, fibres etc. We have to start to take responsibility for our impact on the environment and start to make conscious, informed and educated choices.

We have to start to think before we unconsciously consume. We have to take responsibility for our waste and use resources wisely. We have to stop acting as if the drought is behind us, and accept the fact that Australia is a land of dramatic climatic challenges, that climate change is a reality and both city and country have to work together to harness our resources.

Turn off the taps, waste not and want not, and stop seeing farmers as the enemy – we are the canaries in the coal mine, warning that all is not well with the rape and pillage of this great land of ours. Listen before it is too late.

This entry was posted in Media and tagged .

1 thoughts on “The water disconnect between city and country

  1. Ruth says:

    Amen to all the above. Therre seems to be an increasing divide between city thinking and country awareness. Between superficial and real life. Not sure how we can addres that but I hope your readership is increasing and that it includes some city folk who can become aware of these real problems and discuss them with others.
    Keep\ up the good work!

Comments are closed.