WATER RESTRICTIONS ESSENTIAL FOR SUSTAINABLE
Thursday, 11 September 2003 10:00
Conservationists have welcomed the introduction or mandatory water restrictions for Sydney today as an essential step to conserve scarce water resources and called on the Government to make them permanent.
Total Environment Centre (TEC) Urban Campaigner Mr Leigh Martin said, "The introduction of outdoor water restrictions today is a sensible and necessary step to conserve supplies as summer approaches. Long term sustainable water resource management in Sydney will depend on these restrictions being made permanent".
With current water use exceeding long term sustainable supply there is a pressing need for a long term change in water use patterns. Current water use for Sydney is 630 Gigalitres per year while sustainable yield from supplies (allowing for desperately needed environmental flows for the stressed Hawkesbury-Nepean River system) is 500 GL per year.
"Sydney's shortage of water is not limited to current drought conditions. We must major and make long term improvements in water conservation if we are to avoid the expense and environmental devastation of a new dam on the Shoalhaven River", Mr Martin said.
With drought conditions focusing public attention on the need to conserve water there will never be a better time to for the government to introduce permanent water conservation requirements.
"Sydney is a city reliant on a low rainfall catchment. There can be no justification for allowing wasteful outdoor water use such as hosing down paths and buildings. We must take this opportunity to make Sydney's water use more sustainable by introducing permanent restrictions just as Melbourne has recently done", Mr Martin said.
TEC has also called on the government to promote water conservation by providing more incentives for rainwater tanks and encouraging recycling of sewage effluent.
"While we have a dry catchment the city itself experiences relatively high rainfall. We must make better use of this water and reuse sewage affluent to reduce pressure on drinking water supplies", Mr Matin said
For further information
Contact
:
Leigh Martin - Urban Campaigner
Phone
:
61 2 9299 5599
Email
:
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:
http://www.tec.org.au/
