Newsletter Issue 1, November 2006

Fresh water is a gift from nature that we need to respect, understand and use efficiently and sparingly. Drought, the decline of our river systems, estuaries and lakes, and declining fish populations are the result of our failure to correctly value and use water.

The actions below relate directly to areas of the water cycle where we have excessively intervened to withdraw water for our “needs”, or identifies the silent victims of this excess - those ecological systems that are permanently without sufficient fresh water.

1. Climate change
- through our use of carbon fuels we have unwittingly caused global warming and climate change, a phenomenon than (according to a recent CSIRO report) will reduce the amount of rain hitting Southern Australian water catchments by up to 30% by 2020.
Actions: Buy Renewable Energy, Embrace Energy Efficiency ›

2. Over harvesting wood
- we continue to clear-fell forests in catchment areas, further reducing the amount of water reaching the rivers, lakes and reservoirs - not acknowledging that the water may be more valuable than the wood.
Actions: Buy paper and wood responsibly ›

3. Too much meat
- Meat and dairy production dominates the water use in the agricultural sector (accounting for 70% of all water used by the sector). With over 40,000 litres required to produce a kilogram of beef, we are eating our water faster than we could ever drink it.
Actions: Eat less meat, Adopt a vegetarian diet ›

4. Production of water intensive goods
- Cotton, rice, and aluminium cans all require large amounts of cheap water in order to be produced in a dry land such as Australia.

5. Waste water in the home
- Australian homes consume more water than in most developed countries. Our water use habits were formed before the limits of water were reached. Now we must relearn how to bath, wash and flush as if each drop is precious.
Actions: Use water efficiently ›

6. Failure to capture and re-use local rainfall
- Most homes in Australia receive over 50,000 litres of rain fall annually, water that currently goes into stormwater drains. At the same time we pump water from the catchments to flush our toilets. Hmmm?!
Actions: Harvest and user your rainfall ›

7. Failure to maintain flows to our waterways
- By reducing the amount of water reaching the rivers, lakes and estuaries we are diminishing all the ecosystems that rely on the seasonal ebb and flow of fresh water across the continent of Australia and into the seas around it.
Actions: Help protect our rivers and waterways ›

Text and images (c) Natural Strategies Group 2006
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