Read at : Google Alert – drought
Australia Seeks Long-term Personal Drought Solutions. Grey Water Purification and Reuse Can Ease Water Stress
Australia is facing unprecedented water stress, with the worst drought in 100 years drying out the nation. Innovative solutions are needed to address the current problem whilst also providing a long term answer to our dwindling water supply.
Water restrictions and rainwater tank subsidies have been the main focus of government initiatives to reduce domestic water use. While water restrictions help reduce water consumption, they also cause damage of their own. Gardens are dying and foundations are cracking due to a lack of moisture in the soil.
Rainwater tank subsidies provide some relief, but only if there is rainfall to fill the tanks. Even then, certain councils and states have restrictions on how this water can be utilised by households.
Governments have begun proposing expensive and potential environmentally damaging solutions, such as desalination plants or new dams. Both of these proposals face harsh criticism from local communities.
But what about recycling and re-use in the domestic sphere? Australian homes pour the equivalent of two million Olympic size swimming pools in grey water down the drain each year. Grey water comes from the shower, bath, washing machine, hand basin, laundry tub and spa.
Properly treated, this water is an extremely valuable national resource that currently remains untapped. Purifying and re-using this valuable resource will reduce the need to build expensive and energy consuming desalination plants or new dams.
In addition, grey water recycling systems directly reduce the amount of water taken from the environment, reducing the strain on our limited water supplies and the partially treated waste water major cities pump in to the ocean.
Currently, governments do not subsidise the installation of domestic grey water purification and re-use systems or legally require their installation in new homes. To date, the major domestic water use initiative has been to mandate water tanks for new homes or subsidise their retrofitting into existing homes.
By comparison, on-site grey water purification systems such as Perpetual Water – Home, deliver a much bigger and consistently reliable source of water.
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