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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.