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Sunday, December 31, 2006

The Cost of Water

As South Australia gets ready for Level 3 Water Restrictions tomorrow, where you can water your garden on alternate years, Rex Jory, who hangs out on the back page of the Adelaide Murdoch Comic has some sobering statistics on the cost of water.

In South Australia, 1 litre bottle of drinking water costs around $3 at the store. On the other hand a thousand litres of potable water from the tap costs around $1.

Seems pretty obvious that the cost of water from the tap will have to increase dramatically, if people are to seriously consider making changes in the way that they use readily available water.

You can legislate restrictions all you like, but the wallet is where this area of public policy will have to head. The danger is that this State Government will just pocket the money, rather like their favourite "taxes", speeding fines. On the other hand, a bit of rain may help a little.

Update: The Attorney General, who lives just round the corner, tonight invited the Citizens of South Australia to "Dob in their Neighbours" if they spotted any outrageous residential garden watering abuse. The Water Police will be round pronto. Scary Stuff. The day before the restrictions went into place, South Australians used an extra 30 percent water compared to the previous weekend. Must be filling up those water bottles.

2 comments:

CityUnslicker said...

don't count on the rain. Have you read about the Federation Drought yet?

Colin Campbell said...

No, but I had heard of that period of drought, but a short google search later and I am educated.