A thirst for water dampened only by the yuck factor

Sydney Letter: Australia is the driest inhabitable continent, with 5.6 per cent of the world's land mass but less than 1 per cent of its water run-off (from rain, melted snow or other sources).

This June was the driest on record in western Australia, the third driest in Victoria and the fifth driest for the country as a whole.

Despite this, Toowoomba, the country's second-largest inland city, recently voted against using recycled water. Matters weren't helped when one of Australia's richest men, Clive Berghofer, started referring to his southeast Queensland hometown as "Sh*t City" and "Poowoomba". His bankrolling of the anti-recycling campaign paid off with a 61 to 39 per cent margin.

The federal government was going to co-fund Toowoomba's recycling with the Queensland state government if the vote had passed. Malcolm Turnbull, the parliamentary secretary for water, said he would drink recycled water "with alacrity". "We've got to get real about this. You should judge water by its quality, not by its history."

Sydney has had level-three water restrictions for a couple of years. Watering systems and sprinklers are banned at all times, as is hosing of hard surfaces including vehicles. Hand-held hosing of lawns and gardens is allowed only on Wednesdays and Sundays before 10am and after 4pm.

But regulations, printed in 13 languages including Vietnamese and Mandarin, have not been able to make up for a lack of rainfall. Four years ago, Warragamba dam, which supplies 80 per cent of Sydney's water, was at 74.2 per cent capacity, or a 1,767,000 megalitre reserve. Yesterday, none of the city's five water catchment areas got a drop of rain. Warragamba is down to 40.1 per cent.

The situation is not much different in Australia's other state and territory capitals. Perth and Brisbane's dams are below 30 per cent capacity; Adelaide, Melbourne and Canberra are hovering around 50 per cent. The only exceptions are Darwin in the tropical north (92 per cent) and Hobart in the temperate maritime south (75 per cent).

Hobart's water is of no use to anyone else because it is on the island of Tasmania, and Darwin is too far from any other major population centre to make piping its water economical.

But if the problems are obvious, the solutions are less so. Everyone agrees something must be done, but there is little agreement as to what.

As seen in the Toowoomba vote, the social experiment "yuck factor" of being the first town to drink recycled water is too much for most to bear.

Sydney had planned to build a seawater desalination plant, but dropped it after research showed this was likely to lead to a doubling of household water bills. The plan will be resurrected when and if dam levels drop below 30 per cent. Recycled sewage for non-drinking water is currently supplied to 15,000 homes, and there are plans to increase this tenfold.

The Queensland government is considering piping water 1,200km from Townsville in the state's north to Brisbane, ignoring expert advice that it is cheaper to desalinate than pipe anything beyond 200km.

Melbourne has been in permanent drought for a decade and uses water sucked from the city's sewers ("sewer mining") to irrigate racetracks and big parks. Recycled water is being used on wineries elsewhere in the state.

In Adelaide, storm water is reused for wool scouring and household uses other than drinking. Scientists estimate that, within 15 years, Adelaide's drinking water will be below World Health Organisation safety levels on two days out of five. The region's worldwide renown for excellent wines will be under threat if the scientists are right. Bottles of Jacob's Creek could become a rare and expensive commodity.

Perth, with dam levels dangerously low at 28 per cent, is taking the lead in finding solutions. A $360 million (€216 million) desalination plant - Australia's first major leap into desalinated waters - is due to open within months. There are also plans to pump recycled sewage into aquifers from which the city takes 60 per cent of its water. If this happens it will mean people drinking recycled sewage by default, which may be more palatable than pumping it straight into the dams.

The continuing drought is beginning to affect people's pockets, with the latest inflation figures showing the largest quarterly increase in food prices in 23 years. Year on year food prices were up 8.3 per cent, rising 4.1 per cent in the June quarter alone.

While pure economics will mean people give credence to the problems drought causes for agriculture and food prices, lifestyle changes will be harder to make.

A few years ago, the showers on Sydney's Bondi beach were turned off as a conservation measure. They were soon turned back on again when it emerged that water usage actually went up - beach users were instead going back to their homes, hotels and backpacker hostels and having longer showers.

Australia has a very serious water problem and sooner, not later, people will have to get over the yuck factor and drink recycled water. It might be unthinkable, but the consequence of not doing so is even more unthinkable.