Environment Victoria today called on the Bracks Government to provide incentives for Victorian consumers to embrace water saving technology.
“The Bracks Government needs to show some leadership if we’re going to protect the long term future of Melbourne’s water supply,” said Dr Paul Sinclair, Director of Environment Victoria’s Healthy Rivers Campaign.
“In other states governments are taking the lead and offering rebates for people who want to install water saving devices, so Victoria needs to follow their lead,” he said.
“Twenty per cent of a household’s water gets flushed down the toilet. There are products already being made by Victorian companies that will allow consumers to save this wasted water.”
Water saving technology already available includes Linpac Rotational Mouldings’rainwater utilisation system that can reduce household water use by between 90 000 to 100 000 litres each year.
“Linpac has orders for 7500 rainwater utilisation units from developers in New South Wales and Queensland. Only between 50 and 60 units have been ordered in Victoria,” said Dr Sinclair.
“Why isn’t the government offering incentives for consumers to install this sort of technology?”
“If the government were more proactive it would already be promoting water-saving industries in Melbourne. This would help consumers to save money on their water bill, jobs would be created and water use reduced.
The crisis in Victoria’s water supply has not been helped by continuing logging in Melbourne’s water supply catchments.
“It’s time the Bracks Government got serious about protecting the rivers and catchments to safeguard our water supplies. Melbourne depends on the health of the Thomson River Catchment for good water and yet logging is still going on in the Thomson Catchment,” said Dr Sinclair.
“It is well established that re-growth forest uses far more water than old growth, reducingwater supply to our streams and rivers. In the best areas of the Thomson catchment yields can be halved by logging.”