Water: Making the glass half full

While people will willingly adopt technological innovations like the iPhone or GPS navigation systems which offer obvious improvement, they can be sceptical, reluctant and even fearful to embrace the latest discoveries in cloning, GM food, nuclear power and water use, preferring natural, back-to-basics approaches.

But when it comes to the question of whether Australia has the water resources for its growing population, the natural becomes unreliable. Australia’s average annual rainfall is the lowest of all continents, excluding Antarctica, and is extremely variable. In the past, dams have secured our water supply. However, nearly every river has been dammed at least once and our population is projected to increase 6 per cent to 35.9 million by 2050.

Politicians seem short-sighted and resigned to the problem. When asked whether our cities could cope with the population growth projected by the Treasury last year, population minster Tony Burke said that some areas of Australia "have already reached their capacity due to water constraints." What are these constraints? In the last 20 years, surely new technologies have improved water efficiency.

From a water engineer’s perspective, water efficiency means achieving the same results with less water. For economists, it refers to optimal use of water with respect to its costs and benefits, taking into account alternative uses of both water and capital.

Forecasts that suggest a doubling of our population would demand double the resources, discount the role of technology in water use. They ignore the possibility that innovation may allow us to live comfortable lives while consuming fewer resources than we do currently.

Sydney is proof of this. Australia’s most populous city has actually reduced its total water demand to that of 1970s levels at the same time as it has grown by 1.3 million people. This was possible due to technological advances in leak reduction, recycling, and water-efficient appliances. To encourage households in NSW to reduce water use, all new residential developments are required to use 40 per cent less potable water than the average residential dwelling consumption.

Leak detectors can save billions of litres of high quality drinking water from going to waste. Water loss in 2008-09 amounted to 24 per cent of all water used in Australia. In Sydney alone, water lost from incorrect metering and tap and pipe leaks accounted for 8.2 per cent (or 30 billion litres per year). Wireless leak detectors such as the Australian H20 Organiser could save enough water to supply 150,000 households.

Desalination and recycling technologies are alternative water sources to our rainfall-dependent dams with the capacity to significantly augment the water supply, especially when dam levels fall again. But they are both as politically contentious as they are publicly divisive.

Drinking treated sea-water may seem a desperate measure, but as 85 per cent of the population live in urban areas within an hour’s drive of a coastline, desalination is a logical and viable solution to meet the water demands of our capital cities for several decades.

Increasing the use of recycled water could also augment our supply. While the urban water industry has increased the amount of water recycled during in 2008-09, the overall proportion of recycled water remained unchanged at 4 per cent. Until now, recycled water has only been used for non-drinking purposes in Australia. In 2006, 61 per cent of the residents of Toowoomba in south-east Queensland voted against drinking treated sewage water. However, when reverse osmosis and UV light are being used as a disinfectant to meet World Health Organisation standards, it is the public’s knowledge and acceptance, not the technology, that needs to be strengthened.

To reduce our use of drinking water for non-drinking activities, an Almost Waterless Washing Machine may help. Among Time magazine’s Best Inventions of 2010, it uses reusable stain removing nylon beads and consumes 90 per cent less water than the average washing machine. Considering that 97 per cent of Australia’s 8.1 million households own a washing machine, the water savings could amount to 1.2 billion tonnes of water per year (or 17 million Olympic-sized swimming pools). Of course, after centuries of cleaning clothes with water, households may be reluctant to trust this appliance’s technology. And though the cost of nylon beads might be expected to be greater than of water, the technology is promising for future water-saving innovations.

Comprehensive metering is another option to lower household water demand and maybe one that households will be more willing to adopt. In 2008, according to the OECD, Australia meters 84% of single-dwelling houses. France, the Czech Republic and Sweden meter 100% of households. In Britain, studies have shown that a household’s demand for water drops routinely by 10% after having a meter installed. If Australia metered the remaining 15% of its households, each person consuming 10% less than the current 285 litres daily per capita volume, an additional 33 billion litres of water could be saved per year. This would be equivalent to the annual water use of 149,000 households.

It is possible to augment the water supply of our cities without a drastic overhaul. Ever-improving technologies can not only help us save billions of litres each year but supply billions of litres without relying on rainfall. We may be wary to drink highly treated waste water or clean clothes with stain-removing nylon beads, and we may be reluctant to adopt new ways of using and sourcing water, but we have to acknowledge that these technological improvements are capable of providing water to a growing population.

Rebecca Gill is a researcher at the Centre for Independent Studies. Her report "Droughts and Flooding Rains: Water Provision for a Growing Australia," was released by the CIS.