To see where the future of water use may be heading for the United States, we need to look no further than Australia. For many decades, the Australians have had to deal with water scarcity and prolonged droughts throughout much of the country while supporting a growing population, expanding infrastructure and agriculture. Rainwater harvesting has been an essential part of the Australian approach to conserving water and is now a mandatory component on new construction in parts of the country.
Here are some of the recommendations from the Australia delegation touring U.S. cities to share their experiences with water efficiency as a result of prolonged drought (from meeting 1/13/09). Source: Brad Lancaster
- Price water at its true value. National or Regional water initiative that regulates water– pricing, allocation and water for environment
- Plan for rapid shifts in water loss in Colorado River basin
- Encourage agricultural water efficiencies now to be prepared for future water restrictions
- Create household use targets (35 gallons per person per day in most large Australian cities).
- Consider stormwater harvesting as another water source. Harvest street stormwater, pipe to wetland for filtration then into aquifer.
- Unbundle water rights to have more control.
- Permanent water conservation measures not restrictions.
- Watering time of day restrictions.
- Set reclaimed water use goal (45% target in South Australia).
- Rainwater harvesting requirement on all new construction.
Thanks to Illene Grossman of Tucson Water for this information as well as Brad Lancaster for posting this list to his blog, Drops in a Bucket.
June 7th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
While many parts of the US are in drought, it is still possible to buy water from ajoining states. In Australia, the whole continent has been in drought for about 10 years which has forced the public to rescue the rain water in rain barrels and cisterns to supply water for irrigation, car washing and flushing toilets. American’s need to learn from the lessons that have been forced upon Australians and start capturing their rainwater now as the shortage of good clean drinking water will only get worse as climate change and increased population put even more pressure on our limited water supplies. There is no need to use city water (which is perfectly accepatble to drink) to water our plants or flush our toilets. Rainwater is a perfect solution for these no potable water needs.
July 4th, 2009 at 9:29 am
You can also learn a lot from several European countries. Germany has been into recycling rainwater for many years, with tax incentives for storing it.
In the UK, we assume 140 litres per person per day, which may be conservative. Under a voluntary scheme called Code for Sustainable Homes, the first target is to reduce this to 105 lpppd, which is really only practical if you are using rainwater for flushing toilets.
Slowly we are moving in the right direction.
December 14th, 2009 at 12:31 am
Hi All. Water usage per South Australian household was around 215 litres per day, about 2 years ago.This may have reduced somewhat. Although there is a S.A. Gov’t requirement for new homes to install a rainwater tank (1,000 ltres), this is “left up” to householders, by some builders. It may never be done. I believe a better size tank should be around 30,000 litres to make a real difference.I’ll be lobbying the government to suggest 10,000 as an interum measure. The raim water harvesting earthwork designs are almost unheard of here around Australia. Some very few enlightened councils have designed rain water cachement system on large scale . I know of none using street to curbside capture etc. I’ve seen no carpark designs capturing storing using rainwater to date. I’ll be flat out like a lizard drinking, promoting Brad’s system around Australia. Ciao.