permaculture

[Fiona Campbell <pacedge@magna.com.au>]

There was good news during the week that the NSW government is to drop its ban on drinking and cooking with rainwater. 

The government has not been prepared to recommend the use of rainwater for anything other that non-culinary uses such as toilet flushing, garden irrigation and car washing. Now, faced with the prospect of a summer water shortage, the authorities have been forced to change their attitude. The catch is that householders wanting to directly consume rainwater will have to employ a licensed plumber to put in the piping so that rainwater does not enter the domestic supply. 

The move brings NSW into line with Victoria, South Australia and Queensland where the human consumption of rainwater is permitted.

The path to greater use of rainwater has been smoothed by recent initiatives - some councils provide guidelines on installing domestic rainwater tanks and manufacturers offer a range of tanks from large to small and made of plastic, galvanised iron and concrete. There are even government subsidies for the installation of rainwater tanks.

I do not know if I would be prepared to drink rainwater falling on Sydney roofs, however. A look at airflow map for the Sydney region indicates that polluted air is pushed out to sea, depending on winds, and can then return and settle south-west of the metropolitan area. That puts it over the Campbelltown-Camden region, where the inhabitants get to sample three-day old city air. Whether this air is so polluted that it could contaminate rainwater, even to a small amount, is unknown. Clearly, what we need is the testing of rainwater in different regions of Sydney over the different months.Perhaps one of those first-flush diverters that channel the first rainwater wash over the roof into the stormwater drain would be a good idea.

Maybe we will slowly see the traditional Australian rainwater tank become a feature of houses new and old. As for the city's increasing number of apartment and townhouse residents, there is no technological reason why new housing stock of this type should not provide rainwater harvesting and storage. The precedent is the Stringybark Grove town house development in Lane Cove, where a 22,000 litre underground rainwater tank occupies the space below the carpark. Water  is pumped to the dwellings where it is used for non-culinary purposes such as toilet flushing.

The next step is for local or state government to legislate for the inclusion of rainwater harvesting and storage in new residential developments. For local government, that can be done now by including the requirement in their development control plans.

Water-use restrictions come into force in Sydney on 1 October. Irrigation and sprinkler systems are out and only hand-hosing allowed in the evening. No car washing by hose (only with water in a bucket) and no other similar uses. When we teach out next organic gardening course for Eastern Suburbs Community College we will focus more than we usually do on low-water consumption gardening - mulching, the use of living mulches below fruit trees, collecting rainwater off garden shed roofs, integrating compost into the soil to increase water-holding capacity, small windbreaks to reduce soil water evaporation and so on.

The introduction of water restrictions will probably gladden the heart of urban-dystopians who see our cities as unsustainable presences on the landscape. But a contrary viewpoint suggests that governments are waking up to the fact that cities can be resource-conserving entities and can harness, harvest and store some of their own resource needs. While far from utopias, the cities can exemplify the common sense notion that the utilisation of what nature offers, whether rainfall or sunlight, should be harvested and put to use, leaving some aside for nature's own needs.

With the impending change of attitude to urban rainwater use, all we need now, in this time of drought, is - rain. Looks like it is going to be a long, dry season with that now-familiar tang of bushfire smoke in the nose.

...Russ Grayson, Sydney, Australia; 16.9.03