Water problems

Water, water everywhere. But it’s not. In fact Australia is facing a water crisis.

Peter Beattie, head of the Queensland government is rethinking a proposal to build a 1200km pipeline to transport water from the Burdekin Basin in the far north of the state to Brisbane.

In Queensland’s south-eastern corner, the rural city of Toowoomba is to vote on a referendum about using recycled purified sewage. And this issue has divided the city. Even the Prime Minister John Howard weighed into the debate – he’s all for recycling our waste water, cleaning it up and pumping it back out to be re-used by the community.

There’s a salinity problem over much of our country’s riverlands. And many, if not most, of our towns, cities and states have now implemented strict water restrictions. For example, not being allowed to use hoses or sprinklers on the garden – if you want your garden watered you do it with a watering can or bucket. Or wait for rain. There’s a thriving business boom in supplying plastic trees, plants and lawns now. All in the name of preserving the “perfect” garden.

The NSW city of Goulburn is in a terrible way with its drought problem.

Here in the Alice, we get our water from a finite resource under the ground.

And people here continue to water their gardens at a prolific rate of consumption, our water usage is far higher than the national average – around 1000 litres per person per day compared with the national average of just 620 litres per person. All in the name of turning Alice Springs into an oasis in the desert.