No Watering The Garden With The Hose: One Of Australia’s Worst Droughts
The 2000’s had a few significant events that a lot of South Aussies probably remember watching on the telly, or reading about in the papers.
The Port Stanvac Refinery had closed, Port Adelaide won their first AFL Premiership, Adelaide Airport recorded wind busts of a whopping 152 km/h, and if you watered your lawn with your hose instead of a bucket, you faced a hefty fine.
From 2001 to 2009 specifically, South Aussies were living through the peak of the Millennium Drought – which has been labelled as one of the worst droughts in Australia’s history.
No rainfall meant a dangerous threat to both the water supply, and the environmental climate. With Adelaide being placed on strict Level 3 water restrictions, the impact of the drought would have devastating outcomes to ecosystems, livestock, and even aboriginal burial grounds.
We Would Likely Have Level 3 Water Restrictions Again – If Not For the Desalination Plant
Fast forward to 2025, almost two decades after the fact, dry conditions have hit the lowest amount of water inflows into Adelaide’s reservoirs in quite some time. Meaning, without South Australia’s desalination plant, it’s highly likely that those water restrictions all those years ago would have come back into effect.
The water production at the desalination plant is set to produce four to six times more water supply – which is expected to be 300 million litres of water per day. The plan is to produce higher water demand until at least mid-2025.
Nick Champion, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, said “It can go far south as Aldinga, and it can go as far north to storage tanks at Elizabeth up the suburb of Craigmore”. Mr Champion has also said that the higher volume of water production would not impact water bills.
It’s The Simplest, Easiest Things You Can Do To Be Waterwise
With all this in mind, it is still important to be waterwise where possible, regardless of where you are in SA. At the moment, the Eyre Peninsula’s water response is currently on Level 2, which requests residents to be waterwise rather than imposing restrictions.
“Inflows have been particularly low, lowest inflows into the reservoirs and the mount Lofty Ranges since approximately 1982” said Dr Kingsborough, SA Water’s senior manager of Water Futures and Security.
Dr Kingsborough recommended some ways to be waterwise, such as watering the lawns at night, rather than during the day to minimise evaporation. He continued to say, “If you’re in the bathroom, turn the taps off when you’re cleaning your teeth, simple things like that are important”.
Bushmans is committed to providing Australians with efficient, durable water tanks to assist with water conservation, and to prevent water restrictions in the future. If you’re thinking about purchasing a tank, or multiple tanks for your home, business or property – now is the time to grab yours from our web shop, or from your local reseller.
