Water Wasters

12 January 2010

I have been invited by Don to write  the occasional post about the things that Shit Me.  Thanks Don.

Take this morning.  I went for a long walk around the neighborhood.  When I set off for my walk at 7.00 a.m the temperature was hovering in the high twenties after one of the hotest days on record.  We reached 45 C during the day yesterday.

As I continued on my 30 minute walk I noticed not just one person but at least 6 or more people of different ages and in different forms of attire wandering around their gardens (at least I think the ugly outfits they were wearing at that time of day were pyjamas). What were they doing ?

They were watering their gardens.

What’s so annoying about that ?

Where do I begin ?

For a start ;

1. City Water Storages have a total capacity of 1,810,500 Megalitres.  Currently it holds 670,861 Megalitres.  This means the storages are 37.1% full.
2. There are at last count 3,806,092 people relying on this water.
3. The city is at Stage three water restrictions.  This means watering gardens from a bucket or a hand held hose fitted with a trigger mechanism between 6 and 8 am or 8 and 10 pm.  Watering of lawns and washing of cars is banned.
4. Water use per household is limited to 155 litres per household.

Even if you are not very good at maths I think you would still be able to work out if we don’t get rain (and there has not been any significant rain in this city for years) the water will RUN OUT !

And its not like we don’t know about it.  The State government has spent millions and millions of dollars on advertising campaigns telling us we dont have water and we need to limit the use to a daily limit of  155 litres.

So it is in this context that when wandering around the streets on my walk I noted people hosing their pathetic dried out plants more suited for England than Australia.

It shits me that people are so f@#$ing stupid and selfish that they would waste water on plants rather than saving it for people and animals.

Yes I know we need plants and trees to provide oxygen to the atmosphere.  If so, lets be sensible and chose plants and trees that are drought resistant and able to deal with much less water.  There are people who have started to convert their gardens to low water consuming gardens and use more native drought resistant gardens.  Those people were not the ones out this morning wasting our precious water.

So to the water wasters out there you GIVE ME THE SHITS.  Think about someone other than yourself and if you need a garden go to the local nursery and buy a native plant that will withstand the harsh conditions and will not require you to go out at 7.00 a.m to water your plants.

The government might make you think it’s ok to water your plants and you might argue that your plant watering activities will fall within your 155 daily allowance.  I don’t think its ok nor moral to waste our water..

Charlotte