The Queensland Water Commission has just released draft details of Level 5 water restrictions to apply in Southeast Queensland in a month’s time. This will be a first for any major metropolitan area in Australia.
The 2005-2006 summer was the worst ever for runoff into our dams. January this year was 83% worse than last year. The announcement of Level 5 restrictions was greeted by the heavens opening just a weeny bit, with 26mm falling on the Wivenhoe Dam. But the rain gods are teasing us, as they have been all summer. That was enough to supply us with water for just three days.
Not a day goes by without stories in the MSM about the water crisis. We have been told that supplies will be down to 5% by December 2008 if it doesn’t rain significantly, when our water supply will be stabilised by the commissioning of the Tugun desalination plant, the recycling plant and the pipeline grid to tie the whole water infrastructure together. But meanwhile water flow will be trimmed to the Tarong North and Swanbank power stations.
This, we are told, will not mean that the lights go out. It will mean that we have less power to sell interstate. Whether the lights will go out interstate I do not know.
The basis of Level 5 restrictions is to set a standard of 140 litres per person per day. Prior to restrictions, we as a household of three were using about 900 litres per day. We used sprinklers on the lawns and gardens and filled our uncovered swimming pool as required. With Level 4 restrictions the average in SEQ has come down to 180 litres per person per day.
What is and is not permitted is spelt out in precise detail (full pdf file here). For example you can wash the windscreen, the mirrors and the number plate on your car, and no more, with a bucket filled directly from the tap (ie. not from a hose). You can still water your garden with a bucket within the prescribed hours on two days per week provided your overall usage doesn’t attract attention.
Qld Water Commission research has shown that a third of households are below the 140 litres standard already, while 13% of households are way above it, accounting for 28% of household usage. So how are they going to bring the water-wasters into line?
It seems that they are going to monitor usage through the water meters and have put the 800-litre plus households on notice. The heavy users will get a ‘please explain’ and may lose the right to water their gardens and cop a $150 fine.
The Commission has found that the water rorters think their water usage is average or below average whereas in fact it is double the average. So the Commission is going to try to enlighten them and seek their cooperation rather than come the heavy.
Much of the media coverage has concentrated on the costs. The proposal is to lift water rates by almost 150% over five years. This would lift the average water bill from $355 to $847. Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman reckons it’s a rip-off and State Treasurer Anna Bligh says it is going faster and further than she would like. I understand the Commission’s brief was to price full cost recovery. It remains to be seen whether the tax payer will contribute, but there must be concerns about equity and access as well as costs to industry.
Now that the El Nino has been declared over there is an assumption that it will rain again. I’m not so sure. I’ve been keeping rainfall records since 1995 and have compared them to the long-term averages for the Brisbane Meteorological Office which is not far away. Over the first five of those years we scored 113% of average. In the seven years since 2000 we’ve scored 71% and have cracked average not a single time.
On the Science Show on Saturday we were told that global warming is pulling the weather systems south. It’s doing a few other things that we might go into another time, but it seems to me likely that the weather patterns have shifted decisively. As a young fella after reading Thomas Hardy’s Far from the madding crowd I thought it wise to hope for the best, but have a plan for the worst. This thought has never seemed more relevant.
Update: Premier Beattie has had enough of the campaign by the SEQ mayors to make someone other than the rate payers pay for the $7-8 billion worth of water infrastructure now being installed. In truth the situation is a bugger’s muddle. In SEQ there are 18 councils, 12 water authorities and 19 water storages. Local councils have collected $1.3 billion in revenue from water charges, but Beattie claims this is not available for the infrastructure the State Government is now paying for.
In Queensland the provision of water is a local government responsibility and the state has only come into the issue because of the shortage of rain in the recent drought and the consequent supply crisis.
Beattie wants to clarify the situation, so that everyone knows that the buck stops with him. He’d prefer the councils to hand over their powers, but if necessary he’ll legislate to have the transfer made. He says it is just not on that the local councils, who got us into this mess, will now campaign against the State government up to the municipal elections in a year’s time.
And, he says water will be made available at a reasonable price, as was always his intention.
It seems to me that the Queensland Water Commission, in so far as it was an attempt to take the politics out of the water issue, was wrong-headed in concept. Revenue raising, supply of services, pricing and charging if Beattie’s takeover goes ahead would then be appropriately located in the political system. With that tidying, it seems to me that the Water Commission is doing and can do useful work.
Note: Much of the above comes from an interview with Beattie on local radio.
Don’t you mean that La Niña has been declared? El Niño is associated with drier conditions in noth Australia; La Niña is associated with wetter conditions.
Hmmm. It seems that the water restrictions work differently in Queensland than we do in Victoria. Level 4 restrictions in Victoria mean no (tap) water on the garden. Full stop. None. Melbourne may go to that in May if it doesn’t rain.
As for equity issues, John Quiggin reckons that household water use is pretty much proportional to income.
Down and Out: no. Read the Bureau of Meteorology’s ENSO page. There is a higher-than-normal chance for a La Nina, but it’s not known yet whether it is happening.
Robert, you mean this link. To summarize: El Niño is in decline, but La Niña is yet to be declared. Does that sound right to everyone?
Down and Out, that’s fair enough but perhaps a bit too positive about La Niña. Climatologists have been saying that we often used to get floods after an El Niño, but a pattern seems to be emerging where we don’t.
It can rain seriously here any time of the year. My records show that in April 1996 we got 93mm over the last 9 days of the month. But that was just the start. In the first 6 days of May we got 738mm. A fall of 50mm is what is required to begin to run water in the catchment. It doesn’t seem to happen anymore.
Robert, I daresay Quiggin is right about equity. I raised it because the mayors a squealing like stuck pigs. If economic times are good there may be some relief from general taxation, but masses of funding is needed for other forms of infrastructure to catch up and cater for the 1.6 million extra people we are expecting in the next 20 years. The BCC announced a $37 billion plan for transport over the next 20 years.
We seem to be getting a lot of help with our gardens. Most of the tanks ($1750 subsidy) are being installed to catch rainwater for gardens and swimming pools. In fact if you plumb them into your house we were told your tank water then becomes subject to the same restrictions as town water.
Also if you buy ‘waterwise’ plants from the nursery and save your invoices you can get a $ for $ subsidy when you have bought $50 worth.
And that’s where the current regime of water restrictions shows its stupidity, because the way to use water tanks most efficiently is to plumb them into your house. To maximise overall water savings, you want to be getting as much of your water as possible from the tank, leaving plenty of space for rainfall to fill the damn things again.
Neither the QWC nor the BCC website talk about what happens in the case of unit blocks where there is only the one meter for reading. What’s the story there?
Carol, I was listening to 612 4QR this afternoon. Apparently Elizabeth Nosworthy, the Water Commissioner, was on talkback this morning and got mauled. People are very snippish and one reason is that renters don’t see their water bills at all. I imagine in flats that there is just one meter for the building unless someone pays to put in separate meters.
Some people have been trying very hard and are pissed that they are being asked to do more. Some people say that the government is stupid to let it get to this state and they are just going to ignore the whole thing and do what they want to do. One bloke said that his house cracked, so he’s putting the sprinklers at 1am.
Some are saying that government and industry are not doing enough.
There was a lot of talk this afternoon about half-flush toilets. A guy who ran a backpackers’ place in Tasmania for 6 years said the female toilets continually clogged because women use a lot of paper. In truth our plumber told us not to use recycled toilet paper for the same reason. Three litres in the modern half-flush is not always enough!
Robert, the people who made the rules about connecting tank water to the house have apparently never heard of a one-way valve.
We were surprised, though, that we are only allowed to connect it to the toilet and the laundry for health reasons. The shower is verboten!
Clearly I’m doomed then, because like most country folk I spent most of my formative years drinking water from a tank…
Robert, it’s strange. I work on some acerages in Upper Brookfield which is within the Brisbane City Council area. There is no town water, however. So the citizens have tanks and drink whatever falls on their roof.
We have a ‘first flush’ system, where the first few litres goes down the drain. I might try to get our water analysed some day, though a chemist told me that that is not a straightforward matter. And I’d have to pay.
Carol, late this afternoon I heard a replay of some of the talkback with Elizabeth Nosworthy this morning. She did OK IMHO.
On renters, she said the Tenancy Act would need to be altered so that landlords can pass on to renters the cost of their water. They were hoping to have the law changed, also to make it compulsory for a meter to be installed in units for every dwelling.
I’ve just added an update to the post about Beattie’s proposed takeover of full responsibility for water. I guess he means for SE Qld.
For some reason I couldn’t close out the link in the above comment, so I’ve taken it out. It’s here.