The government has introduced a guideline for the general public to follow, under the slogan "Our water our future" - Target 155 (litres of water to be used per day), whilst at the same time using drinking water for lawns etc.
The government has also intruduced legislation that if the general public care 'caught' 'wasting' water they are branded 'water cheats' by the mass media, and fined.
What the mass media DO NOT report, is that Melbourne's drinking water is used to fill swimming pools, which are approved by the city coucils, in oder to obtain higher rates.
The water (which is essentially from the SAME source as the customer's ) is paid for by the customer at a premium, and NOT the $.90 per 1000 litres from ones tap.
In a recent approval by a City Council, a 50,000 litre swimming pool was approved.
This is enough drinking water for approx. 1 year, but some one has made LOTS of MONEY from the supply and delivery of it.
Since the privatisation of Melbournes water supply, in the last 25 years there has been an increase of approx 30% in population, BUT with NO increase in water storage infrustructure.
Every decade has had some sort of drought, and the politics of today is to use water tanks (for households) which should have been implemented in the 40's-60's, BUT since the Water was in government hands that would mean that the profits would be detracted from the government.
It is the fault of every political party of the day for not providing enough resources to cater for the growing population.
As a result the general populous has to pay much overinflated prices for water to the great profit of the companies involved.
Target 155 is a farce, as some air conitioners use 20-70 litres PER HOUR, to which the government is fully aware. It is that the government has to be SEEN to be doing something.
In the states budget there is NO mention of a DE-SALINATION PLANT, but rather menial projects.
The government has still failed to launch a de sal plant well into the 'drought'.
At the end of the day, it is NOT about water saving BUT about the HIGH price of water.
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