Australia Comparative: Water Restrictions

To strengthen our advocacy for tougher conservations measures, our Environmental Scientist and Program Director took the opportunity while on holiday in Melbourne, Australia, to call on the Yarra Riverkeeper and Werribee Riverkeeper and find out how Melbourne tackles its water shortage problems.

Melbourne is now in its 10th year of drought. Water storages are rapidly diminishing and more and more water is being taken out of the Yarra and other rivers to provide drinking water for the city folk and their toilets. Learning not to be a “Wally with water” has slowly become a way of life. Melbournians are reminded daily of how much water they use and the amount of water left in storage. Households are offered free water-efficient showerheads and free shower timers to ensure those showers are kept to the four-minute limit. School children are taught the toilet etiquette: “If it’s yellow let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down.”

For Melbournians, water restrictions are part of the fabric of life. They have been used as a tool to curb consumption in times of drought as far back as the 1870s, when a basic restriction was introduced to prevent the use of hoses on gardens. So it was no surprise when in the midst of the longest drought on record, the Victorian Government introduced permanent water saving rules in March 2005, with penalties for breaches. These rules focus on outdoor use of water and place limits on when and how water can be used.

In addition to the permanent water saving rules, a five-stage water restriction regime is also in place. The decision to impose the additional restrictions resides with the Minister for Water and is connected to storage levels, weather forecast and consumption patterns. Melbourne is currently on Stage 3A. This means no garden watering at all on Monday, Thursday and Friday, no lawn watering and car washing, and new pools and spas cannot be filled.

According to data provided by the Government, since moving to Stage 3A on April 1, 2007, Melbournians have reduced water use by 17 percent. Its per capita use is 34 percent lower than in the mid 1990s. Further, total water consumption in Melbourne from April 1, 2007 to March 31, 2008 was 368 billion litres, compared to 443.5 billion litres from April 1, 2005 to March 31, 2006. During this period, only the Permanent Water Saving Rules were in place and no restrictions.

These water restrictions are targeted at residential users, and only when the levels are as high as 5 or 6 (as they are approaching in Queensland, Australia) do businesses become subject to the mandatory development of internal policies for conservation. The highest levels of water restrictions involve energy “brown outs,” as the production of energy is an enormous consumer of precious water resources. When power only runs during certain hours of the day, will the public finally realize how extreme this freshwater crisis is becoming?

As with San Diego, water restrictions are just one step to living in an era of water scarcity. As the Melbourne case study shows, water restrictions help communities rethink their water consumption habits and assist in setting the course for a new water ethos. Melbournians pride themselves on having gardens that require no watering, with signs proclaiming as such in their front yards — quite a paradigm shift from the San Diego addiction to green lawns!

Permanent Water Saving Rules
The six key Permanent Water Saving Rules are:
• Use manual watering systems only between 8 p.m. and 10 a.m.
• Use automatic watering systems only between 10 p.m. and 10 a.m.
• Fit your hose with a trigger nozzle.
• No hosing paved areas.
• Apply to fill a new pool.
• Non-residential customers who use more than 10ML per annum of potable (drinking) water from an urban supply are required to develop a water management action plan.

Stage 3A Water Restrictions
• Lawns cannot be watered at any time with drinking water.
Manual watering and dripper systems can only be used between 6 and 8 a.m. on the nominated day (even numbered properties — Saturday and Tuesday/odd numbered properties — Sunday and Wednesday)
• Automatic dripper system can be used on specified days between midnight and 2 a.m.
• No garden watering at all on Monday, Thursday and Friday.
• No car washing unless via an efficient commercial car wash.
• One in four sports grounds can only be watered.
• Industry must complete a water conservation plan.

Australia Comparative: Water Recycling
Diversifying the water supply is one strategy being employed by the Victorian government to provide what they refer to as “water security.” In 2002, they set a target of recycling 20 percent of Melbourne’s wastewater. In February of this year, the government announced it had already exceeded this target, with some 22 percent of wastewater being recycled for use by market gardeners, industry, sporting grounds, nurseries and new housing developments.

One of Melbourne’s two major sewage treatment plants is currently being upgraded to enable treatment of wastewater to tertiary standard. When complete in 2012, it will provide an additional 100GL/yr for uses currently being met by drinking water, such as cooling the dirty, ugly brown coal power plants in the Latrobe Valley (southeast Victorian).
Another proposal being considered by the Victorian Government is to pump all the recycled water all the way back up into the Yarra River and simultaneously extract more natural river water. The Yarra Riverkeeper has been vocal in his opposition to this proposal.

With average flows in the Yarra now only 20 percent of their level of the last 40 years, the Yarra Riverkeeper acknowledged that recycled water was better than no water, but was a definite second choice to natural river water, which provided all the necessary life signals. The Yarra Riverkeeper’s lack of enthusiasm for the proposal relates to the government using the proposal as an excuse to take more water out of the Yarra River. Support for the proposal would come if it provided additional water to the Yarra and they took no more water out. Through the “Go Yarra Flow” campaign, the Yarra Riverkeeper is advocating for the Victorian government to honor its commitment to deliver a minimum environmental flow regime for the Yarra and thereby provide a healthy river system for the platypus, the short-finned eel and other creatures that need a healthy Yarra for survival.