1 December 2006
WATER SAVINGS HELPING COMBAT RECORD LOW STREAM FLOWS
Water Minister John Thwaites today urged Melburnians to install water saving devices in their homes, as Melbourne entered a long hot summer.
"Stream flows for spring into Melbourne's water catchments were the lowest on record by more than 40 per cent," he said.
Mr Thwaites said the stream flows into the catchments were 40,000 megalitres over spring, compared to the long term average of 209,000 megalitres, and 71,000 megalitres for spring in the previous lowest year of 1982.
"The great water saving response of Melburnians has kept us from going onto tougher levels of water restrictions," he said.
"In November, water use was 336 litres per person per day - 5 per cent less than November last year.
"And Melburnians are saving 22 per cent on their water use compared to the 1990s - the equivalent of about 100 billion litres of water per year.
"To put this in perspective, this about 17 times more water, every year, than would come from damming the Maribyrnong River."
Melbourne's water storages are at 41.6 per cent. The trigger point for Stage 3 restrictions in December is 37.2 per cent. Melbourne will remain on Stage 2 through December.
Mr Thwaites urged Melburnians to take advantage of the Bracks Government's rebate scheme and save money as well as water on a range of products including:
- Water efficient showerheads; saving of 20,000 litres per year - rebate $10 - there is also a free exchange program of old showerheads through water authorities;
- Dripper watering systems; savings of up to 12,000 litres per year combined with other garden measures like mulch - rebate of $30 as part of a $100 basket of goods;
- Mulch; saves up to 70 per cent of evaporation - rebate $30 ($100 basket of goods)
Mr Thwaites said the Bracks Government would also support more water conservation with the introduction from the first of next month of a $1000 rebate for water tanks of more than 5000 litres that were connected to the toilet and laundry.
"It's vital we save water in households, which make up 60 per cent of the demand on Melbourne's catchments - that is 60 per cent of Melbourne's water use is in households.
"Tanks can save as much as 40,000 litres per household per year."
Mr Thwaites also released new figures showing water use across the suburbs for July to September.
"The new figures show a saving of 4.4 per cent over the year to September - as we enter summer today it's even more important that we continue and improve on our water saving record," he said.
"These figures follow the release of Australian Bureau of Statistics figures earlier this week that showed Victorians were the most efficient water users in Australia."