Water Restrictions Can Kill

With Australia under severe drought and many areas having strict water restrictions, this story is very sad, especially because the old guy who had a heart attack and died was not violating water restrictions.

A man has been charged with murder in Sydney's south after punching and kicking an elderly man - sparking a "massive" heart attack - during an argument over water restrictions, police say.

A 66-year-old man was watering his front lawn, in Formosa Street, Sylvania, when another man, 36, who was walking past the house, challenged him about water restrictions.

The two argued and police said at one point the 66-year-old turned the hose on the other man, wetting him.

The 36-year-old attacked the older man, punching him, pushing him to the ground and then kicking him.

The older man then suffered a massive heart attack, an ambulance spokesman said.

"He was hit in the head [and then] he went into massive cardiac arrest," the spokesman said.

That is a high price to pay for a water fight. And the old guy was entitled to do what he was doing.

Adelaide Gardeners Revolt

The common citizen gardeners are revolting against a requirement that they cannot water their gardens, except using buckets. The talk back radio waves are full of angry upstanding citizens ranting against the State Labor Governments attack on gardeners rights and the injustice of old ladies getting up early to walk around with buckets to preserve their gardening treasures. With temperatures already in the high twenties and no rain, it is a real issue for many people.

On the weekend the Murdoch Rag had a serious double page spread on the issues of watering gardens, drippers and the like and the need for water economy, which nobody doubts. The major advertiser on the page supporting this was a swimming pool company promising swimming pools by Christmas. You can't fill them, but you can get them installed. Perhaps you can fill it with buckets. For a rainwater tank on the other hand, that would be about 9 months in some cases.

Ironic.

Backyard Gardens Reduce Global Warming

Clive Blazey from the Diggers Club has some advice for would be backyard gardeners. Dig, Grow and Reduce Global Warming.

South Australia is a small state

Although South Australia is a large state by size, it is a small state by population, with around 2 million people, most in the Adelaide area and no projection for significant growth over the next ten years. It also has the highest population of older people, with increasing needs in areas such as health.

Regeneration of the economy is an important short term and longer term goal. The governments goal is to "control costs and make the right long term investments". The government is working on tourism, mining, war machine building, and education as sources of growth. Manufacturing is under severe pressure as the local economy becomes more uncompetitive as a base for manufacturing. Much of the infrastructure is a bit delapidated.

The economy was shell shocked with the collapse of the State Bank in the early 1990s and the state only recently got their Triple A credit rating back. They are now making some limited big ticket investments. The limited tax base makes it difficult to make the large investments that the state needs. State debt is set to rise by 70 per cent this financial year and continue to increase dramatically through 2010.

Many of the big ticket investment projects, primarily in transportation have blown out in cost, sometimes by 100 percent. Health spending is out of control.

Outside experts predict that spending will have to be reined in and the question was not whether, but where and when the axe would fall.

One example of the delapidated infrastructure is the train system which is old and in need of significant investment. The rolling stock and especially the ticketing system is third world in standard. When I asked one of the conductors about it, she quickly quipped that we are a small state and we can't afford it.

The road network needs a significant upgrade, but at a huge price. One of the underpasses proposed for a major arterial has jumped in price by over three times.

South Australia lags the other states in water saving investments like rainwater tanks, water saving taps, grey water recycling. In the last six months, only 17 rainwater tank grants have been approved. In Queensland investments in similar water saving devices would earn more than twice the rebate.

It is not all doom and gloom, but it is a challenge. Part of the attraction of Adelaide is the scale. This just makes it more of a challenge to make some of the investments required going forward.

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.

Tougher Water Restrictions To Kick In

As we head to our first really hot day of the not quite summer season, 38 degrees in Adelaide tomorrow, stronger water restrictions are on the way, with sprinklers banned through the week.

Our gl'eaurious leaders are clearly on top of things.

River Murray Minister Karlene Maywald, said "it was clear South Australians were not getting the water saving message and that consumption was up."

Just a day later, Acting Water Minister John Hill said he was "heartened" to see water consumption was down and that the public was heeding to call to reduce water use.

"South Australia is just following slowly behind the other states, with knee-jerk reactions and mixed messages from it's ministers," according to one commentator.

Prior to the last set of regulations, there was a huge spike in consumption as residents soaked their lawns and refilled their pools.

It does seem that all the focus is on gardening uses of water. Clearly it is the easiest to regulate, but will people dob in serial water abusers and will the government have the resources to really tackle the problem. You can be certain that consumption will be way up in the five weeks leading up to the new restrictions. You will have to get up at 5am or start watering after 8pm on Saturday or Sunday, in order to follow the new regulations.

This is just tokenism. More serious consideration to tackle other uses of water by industry, local councils, irrigators and other profligate water abusers. Also these regulations do not address other domestic uses of water. Very reactionary and not reflective of sound planning.