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Going for gold in water
recycling
Australia
could lead the world in water recycling, according to
CSIRO scientists. we have the expertise; we have the
technology - but do we have the will to go all the way?
Speaking in
Adelaide today as part of National Science week, Dr
Peter Dillon and Dr John Radcliffe will reveal that even
in a drought year, a lot of water is wasted.
"Australia is
currently the second highest user of domestic water in
the world," explains Dr Dillon. "Urban areas take a
similar volume of water per hectare from supply
catchments as irrigation, but discharge a much greater
volume as stormwater and sewage."
Few realise
just how much rain goes straight down the drain (as
stormwater), and out to the ocean. In Adelaide for
example, more than 100,000 million litres of stormwater
flows into Gulf St Vincent every year.
That's 100
gigalitres per year, or 500 gigalitres over five years.
(By strange coincidence, the same amount of water the
National Water Initiative hopes to buy back to save the
Murray). A further 60 gigalitres is discharged by our
waste water treatment plants.
"There are
great opportunities to improve water use efficiency and
harvest this otherwise wasted water, reducing demands on
stressed catchments, leaving more water in streams and
aquifers, and easing pollution," says Dr Dillon.
"Rainwater,
stormwater, greywater and reclaimed water will all form
part of an indispensable future water supply in urban
areas."
The Australian
Water Conservation and Reuse Research Program will
address the barriers that have historically inhibited
the safe and productive use of these relatively untapped
resources.
Development of
the program was originally motivated by a review of
water reuse, current research and research needs
published by Dr Dillon in the year 2000, which found the
Australian research base modest and fragmented.
"The situation
we had then created barriers to good water management
and left us vulnerable to failures and inferior
decisions, building in long-term inefficiencies", says
Dr Dillon. "It was agreed that a coordinated, national
effort would be required if Australian water
conservation and reuse was to advance into the
twenty-first century."
"we have a
golden opportunity to lead the world in water
conservation and reuse". |
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