Too precious to waste
DID you know the water you drink today is pretty much the same water that quenched the thirst of dinosaurs millions of years ago? Talk about bad breath!
But there’s no need to worry. This is simply part of what is known as the water cycle — the Earth’s use and reuse of water over and over again.
Water falls from the sky to nourish plants and animals, returns to the sky through evaporation and falls again from the sky in a continuous cycle.
The water cycle has been going on since the dawn of time, so don’t you worry about dinosaur backwash.
However, we should be concerned about the amount of safe and usable water in the context of climate change, industrial growth and global population expansion. And TasWater says it’s particularly important to think about water conservation at this time of year.
“People don’t think as much about conservation in the winter because that is when it rains the most,” said Rob Cooper, TasWater’s manager for Asset Strategy.
“But conservation all through the year makes the difference,” he said. “If we conserve water during the winter months, then we will have more available during the summer.”
Along those lines, TasWater has provided plenty of tips to help Tasmanians protect our most precious resource. Check out TasWater’s website for more details about that.
Although some of the advice relates to creative ways to use less water, other useful tips focus on the importance of limiting contaminants in wastewater.
Doing this makes it easier to treat wastewater and helps protect the environment from potential damage.
Many of the tips are simple, easy and inexpensive, so there’s no excuse to shun them.
The current state of Tasmania’s precious water resource, Mr Cooper said, is not doom and gloom. Rather, the situation is pretty stable, but that can also be a problem because it can lead to complacency in the context of conservation. People tend to react, rather than act.
“What people do now can affect what happens next year,” he said. “There’s always the potential for restrictions, but working together to conserve water reduces the chance.”
The only part of Tasmania under current water restrictions is Whitemark on Flinders Island.
That restriction is classified as Stage 1, which is the lowest level, and, as Mr Cooper explained, the reason for the restriction is to ensure residents have a steady supply of water while upgrade works are being done on the Henderson Dam.
Although the restrictions — which set limits on watering gardens, filling pools and spa baths and washing paving
and cars — only affect Flinders Island, that doesn’t mean we all don’t need to do our bit to conserve.
Some of the tips are simple: If you wash your car, park it on your lawn so that the run-off feeds the grass.
Use low-phosphorous laundry detergent. Don’t run the tap while brushing your teeth. Use a broom to clean your driveway, not a hose.
Tasmania has an advantage over many other places in that we generally have a good supply of delicious water.
But that cannot be taken for granted. As TasWater says: “It can be raining for days, and it might be green and wet where you are, but that does not always mean our catchments and reservoirs are full.”