Why save water?
Oct 10th, 2010 |
The following is from the savewater!® Alliance …
The savewater!® Alliance works with member water businesses, government agencies and product companies to deliver water conservation programs throughout Australia. savewater!® offers a combination of web resources and practical programs to help all Australians change the way they use water.
There are many hidden effects of excessive water consumption, including:
- Building more dams. This has severe environmental effects such as destruction of wilderness, creation of greenhouse gases from rotting vegetation, altered streamflows and degraded ecological health. It’s also very costly!
- Maintaining other infrastructure for water supply and use. This includes costly upgrades and maintenance of pipes, sewers and treatment facilities. One metre of stormwater drain costs about $2,000 to install.
- Erosion, salinity and desertification. Water consumption for agriculture alters the natural water cycle in many areas of Australia. This degrades production areas and intensifies other environmental problems such as landclearing and desertification. Salinity is said to directly cost Australia over 1.5 Billion dollars a year, but true figures are probably a lot higher than this.
- Degradation of water bodies. Many of our rivers, wetlands and bays are degraded. This is partly due to the high levels of water extracted, as well as polluted surface runoff and stormwater flushed into them.