Major Water Restrictions..

[Rhiannon]

Parts of Australia, including the state I am in, have extremly tight water restrictions because we are going through our worst drought (water shortage) on record.

My state is up to stage 3, but there are places up to stage 5, only allowing 500lt of water usage per day (which is so small when you have a family).

So my once very very beautiful garden with lush green grass, beautiful organic vegies growing, amazing ferns etc is just dying.

At the moment on stage 3, we are allowed to water for 15 mins with a hose with a nozzle on wed and sun only. Other days it is to be with a watering can.

You cannot wash your car, you are only allowed to wash the windows and lights with a bucket of water.

No filling new pools or spas, and topping up spa's and pools with a bucket only. No hose usage allowed.

I just wanted to share this with everyone because its very very sad.

Every week, at least 1 - 2 farmers are commiting suicide here because their farms are that bad in drought that they cannot cope.

Are any other countries on water restrictions?

 

[Opcn]

I would recommend getting rid of all of your grass and non Xeriscape flowers right away. You aren't living in Scotland, and any water that you are using on your lawn is water that farmers could be using on there fields.

Just my thoughts.

 

[QuotheRaven]

But whats amazing is public car washes are still running and people run their dish washers day after day. And Opcn The Farmers need the rain and Rhiannon to stop using a little bit of water on her garden isn't going to help the farmers they need days and days and days of rain

 

[Rhiannon]

But whats amazing is public car washes are still running and people run their dish washers day after day. And Opcn The Farmers need the rain and Rhiannon to stop using a little bit of water on her garden isn't going to help the farmers they need days and days and days of rain

Exactly right. I dont think anyone understands how in drought our rural areas are and that a bit of my water is not going to save their cattle, crops, grass or lives.

 

[t1tanrush]

Been there, you'll get through it don't worry!

 

[Opcn]

The farmers do need rain, Because rain is water, just like the water that you put on your lawn. For the farmers every drop counts. Your l;awn needs at least an inch a week to not be dead, there are food crops that make it on an inch a week, so a farmer could be making money off a patch of good soil sas big as your lawn is if you were not using that water, that counts. If every person with a lawn in an arid climate manned up and got rid of them then I'm willing to bet that there wouldn't be any farmers commiting suicide.

What you do matters, that is why the government can make changes by affecting what you do.

 

[Teri]

Our drought last year in South East England sounds like nothing compared to the one Rhiannon's described, but we developed some quite strange practices to save water, including leaving the bath/shower water in the bath so we could siphon straight into the toilet bowl instead of using the flush, (not very effective, i have to admit!!) my 3 yr old had all her baths outside under a parasol, and the water went straight onto the grass, and we handwashed all our clothes, and used the sudsy water to wash the car. (which strangely seemed to get dirtier the hotter it got). Don't suppose all the detergents etc in the washing water did the plants much good, but the heat was killing them off anyway!
Hope the situations a bit better now

 

[Dragonscales]

I am in a pretty restricted place too Rhiannon (Ballarat, Victoria), we are at level 4 now and talks about going to level 5 and no end in sight atm. What makes it worse here is that we supply water to alot of surrounding areas and there just isn't enough rain to even begin replacing what is used. All the rivers, streams and lakes are drying/dried up around here (Even the man made ones in tourist parks, etc are bone dry) and the recent bushfires are only worsening the problem as alot of water is taken from here to fight them.

I agree on lawn being an unnecessary luxury atm opcn but that isn't even going to put a dent in this drought problem (we have been getting below average rainfalls for about 10 years or so where I am) and isn't even really a major factor due to the restrictions placed on lawn watering - they aren't meant to be watered at all so apart from a few idiots making up a minority, that has been nulled in most areas. The main problems atm are the severe lack of rainfall, the fires which rage every year over here and the remoteness many farmers have from town sourced supplies of water (what little there is to go around that is). Alot of farmers are reliant on tankwater over here and don't have access to mains water and even if they did I suspect they would be restricted on what they were allowed to use month to month due to the extent of the drought. Water reserves where I am were listed at around 18% in November and I dare say it is quite a bit lower now, especially due to the aforementioned shipping to surrounding areas, firefighting, etc.

Still, things could be alot worse, I feel more sorry for the poor bastards in the grampians, they copped really bad fires and wanted nothing but rain and when it did come (briefly but violently) the lack of vegetation from the fires caused mudslides (and ashslides thanks to the fires which covered our town in smoke for weeks even though we are some 300km away!) which wrecked even more homes.

We have been lucky with the fires so far, they have always been stopped before they reach us but there have been a few close calls where the only deciding factors between this whole area being engulfed or not was the wind and/or some sporadic showers which were enough to get them under control. I guess the catch to living in the lucky country is having drought as our national climate.

 

[Rhiannon]

Well where I live hits stage 4 next month.

Now you are not even allowed to wash your car with a bucket of water, only your mirrors and windows on the car.

Our intire vegie cropped died off which was very sad because it was very big and had many many many hours of hard work put into it.

This winter my husband is connecting plastic hosing to our shower and sink in our ensuite to water the veg everytime we use it.

Such a pity its ended up like this.

As for the fires, they are always close to me, last one was 20 mins away. We are used to it now.

 

[Dragonscales]

Yeah, grey water use should help keep them going, there is alot of that being utilised around here atm too

 

[ITHURTZ]

Your complelty surrounded by water and cant use it?

Take water from the ocean, salt doesnt evaporate. But a boiler under the huge pot of salt water, have the steam collected that then drains into a filter which then fills a container of water. Wella, natural fresh water

 

[Dragonscales]

Australia is a big place and not everyone has access to a beach (in a practical way anyhow), then there is the problems of pollutants, etc (making a residential setup impractical and impossible in some cases). There is talks of erecting desalinization plants, etc but that all takes time and money and still doesn't really help the farmers any as they are generally a long way from the ocean and major town centers. Due to the size of Australia and the spread out aspect of the population, just laying the pipelines to ship desalinized water about would cost millions and still not service everywhere.

Don't get me wrong, it is an idea that has it's merits (and one I have had a positive attitude about for a long time now) but would only really be effective at supplementing the existing water supplies in tandem with other methods of conservation. Unfortunately, I doubt the Government here would be inclined to implement something like this in any large degree, opting instead to recycle our sewage into drinking water (rather than recycling industrial and commercial water - two areas which are far from restricted compared to residential), bunch of wankers that they are.

 

[ITHURTZ]

Do what america does, just keep spending money even if you dont got it!

 

[lljdma06]

What's the update in your situation? There are water restrictions where I live now too, but no where near yours in severity. We can water 3 days a week right now, but in a bit, it'll be down to two, and you can only water at wierd times (5am anyone?). It's frustrating, I know. I keep roses, and they need the water right now, so I'm out of bed and watering them on my designated days. I drink copious amounts of coffee to stay awake.

Good luck to you.

llj

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Ah, i would just forget about the lawn- if the grass goes brown, don't worry about it as it'll grow back as soon as it rains .
Here's a good news article on saving water in the garden;

http/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/breakfast/4997660.stm

For the future, i would also advise planting more plants which are a lot more suited to droubt conditions- Australia's water shortage problems are likely to only get worse and worse as time goes by, so you might as well plan on having plants which will not suffer through droubt than having plants which can't cope with it in your garden. Plants like "decorative grasses, prairie plants such as verbena, heleniums, broom and - for beautiful flowers - perennial osteospermum" are good for very dry and hot gardens.

I'd also definately advise putting wood chip/mulch or gravel on the flower beds as they'll help lock the water into the flower and beds and help prevent water being lost via evaporation (this really works!).

More on australia's droubt problems;

http/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6121288.stm

I have a lot of family living up in Australia, i'm half australian myself- the way my grandfather deals with the lack of water in his garden is by focusing on planting native tree's in the garden which cope well with the lack of water. While there's not much in the way of a lawn in general during the really harsh times, all the shade created by the tree's in the garden make it very cool and tranquil which helps some of the more fragile plants to survive (also its just really nice how cool and shady the garden is even in the hottest summers) .

I wouldn't advise washing your car in old soapy water though as the soap is bad for the paint, personally i'd just not bother at all with washing the car at all since it is only a cosmetic appearance thing.

When you brush your teeth, save the water to then wash your face with and then wash your feet with. Old bath water can be used to clean dishes in or floors with, while old fish tank water from water changes can be used to water the plants in your garden with (which they'll love cos of all the nitrates in the old fish tank water). Never use soapy water on plants though regardless if they are dying or not, it'll poison the soil and wildlife.