Drought

Most of Australia is in drought right now. Has been for years. Some say this is a thousand-year drought that Australia may never come out of. That this continent will get hotter and drier until agriculture becomes impossible. Until recently a visitor to Sydney would never have never known it.

But that’s changing. Since we go back here in December, I’ve noticed how much more seriously everyone in Sydney is taking it. The conversation often turns to the level of water in the dams that supply Sydney (at the moment they’re at about 35%—not good), when the water restrictions are going to be raised to level 4, and what we can do to be gooder than we are about saving water.

The last has led to all sorts of potlatching conversations. One of us will boast of having reduced shower time to less than two minutes by only having the water on for the intial wetting and then for rinsing. Someone else will top that by having a bucket in the shower to collect grey water for the garden.

I worry about this last one. I am a clumsy person and I suspect me and the bucket would come a cropper. Astonishingly, my proposal that we all shower just once a week was not met with enthusiasm. Where is everyone’s backbone? Do they not want our country to survive the drought?

Scott’s father grew up on a farm in Texas. He starts to get twitchy when it hasn’t rained for a couple of days. Nothing makes him happier than the sound of rain. This despite not having worked on a farm for half a century.

The longer the drought goes on the more city people like myself feel the same way. When it doesn’t rain for weeks and weeks and weeks on end, it becomes more and more unnerving. In some parts of the country there are small kids who have never seen rain. Can you imagine that?

I have not heard a single person whinge about the water restrictions. The most common response is to wonder why they weren’t brought in sooner and why they aren’t stricter. People want to do their bit. Like during World War 2 when people (for the most part) cheerfully made all sorts of personal sacrifices—wedding dresses given away to be made into parachutes. If there’s something—anything—we can do to make sure this country, this world, has a future then we’ll do it.

Posted by Justine at 15:18, 22 January 2007 under State of the World, Sydney/Australia | 20 Comments »

Comments

katerate Says:

Wow, you learn something new every day. I never even knew that this was going on. I knew that Australia was a hot and dry place– but not this severe. This makes me sad. It’s one thing for someone not to have ever seen snow– but rain? Terrible.

January 22nd, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Diana Says:

When we first got to Sydney it was raining (October, 2003). It rained on and off the whole time we were there that spring.

The next time we were in sydney it was summer (March 2004), and my strongest memory of those days was a time when the wind came from the west, and it was dry and hot like an oven door opening in your face. I’d jump in the pool at the caravan park and by the time I pulled my dripping body out and walked to my towel, my bathing suit, my body and my hair would be equally dry.

January 22nd, 2007 at 4:29 pm
David Moles Says:

man, australians are awesome. most of the time in the states when stuff like that is going on they just build more golf courses.

January 22nd, 2007 at 4:33 pm
4. Justine Says:

Katerate: Yeah, the never-seeing-rain thing freaks me out.

Diana: We’ve had a fair amount of rain this summer. Some excellent storms. Problem is while the city of Sydney gets the rain, the catchment area doesn’t. The rain isn’t falling where it’s needed. That said it’s days since it rained. Feels like it hasn’t rained this January, but I can’t find anything online to verify that.

David: I’d love to be able to tell you golf courses aren’t being built here . . . .

January 22nd, 2007 at 5:14 pm
lili Says:

it makes me sad that kiddies can’t run around in sprinklers anymore.

they need to make water more expensive. charge us normally for a modest amount, then when you hit a cap, it gets x100 more expensive.

if you have a bath-shower, you can just leave the plug in, instead of the bucket, then use your bucket to get rid of the water when you’re finished. (or a pump, if you’re being fancy)

i also collect the rinse cycle from my laundry – the cumquat tree loves it!

January 22nd, 2007 at 5:47 pm
Rebecca Says:

when i moved to austin for school, it didn’t rain for three months. although i must say the two day thing strikes me as odd. it’s texas after all. but then i’ve only been south and central for any length of time, so maybe it’s different elsewhere. we get water restrictions every summer, but i know that people here gripe and moan about it sometimes. which strikes me as odd. they ought to be used to it by now. it’s just something that happens. in santa fe, new mexico, they used to have thunderstorms nearly every day in july, but last time i was there, only one came the entire time. i did hear somewhere recently about the children who have never seen rain. that’s crazy. and kinda scary.

January 22nd, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Robyn Hook Says:

it was revealed on the news tonight that the dam nearest us, North Pine Dam, has dropped below 20%![ North Pine dam is less than 80 km from Australia Zoo]

January 22nd, 2007 at 8:37 pm
Diana Says:

We had that problem a lot in florida, it would rain, but so fast that it would all run off before it percolated into the aquifers, or not in the right place, or whatever.

When we have water restrictions, it was always about taking short showers and not watering your lawn and etc. (lawns are stupid in florida, anyway. grass is not natural here). But I remember once in manhattan, the water restriction was that they wouldn’t give you water in a restaurant unless you asked for it!!! and THAT was how they saved water. Was that really saving anything?

January 23rd, 2007 at 2:44 am
veejane Says:

Wowsers. I don’t think I’ve ever lived under water restricks. Then again, I live between the mountains and the sea, so even if it didn’t rain (which it does, a lot) there has always been snowmelt into the rivers. Except now with global warming we may never see snow again.

My only equivalent experience is discovering the price of heat per unit last winter, when it spiked, and the creative ways of keeping a house warm that did not involve thermostats. My wallet being affected, I sure did respond quickly to whatever coping mechanisms I could think of — probably more quickly than the law or civic guilt-tripping ever could have done.

(Boy, did I get tired of long johns!)

January 23rd, 2007 at 3:19 am
Ez Says:

Your LJ version of this entry has an “Error: Invalid mark-up.”

Have a lovely day!

January 23rd, 2007 at 12:06 pm
chrisbarnes Says:

I do the bucket-in-the-shower thing. It collects enough to water my potplants each day. But I must admit that on the journey between shower and garden I’ve had occasional mental visions of myself stumbling, and water flying all over my TV and stereo. but so far, so good.

January 23rd, 2007 at 9:19 pm
12. Justine Says:

It’s raining right now. Just a little bit. We got 0.6mm today (technically yesterday but you know what I mean). Dunno if anything fell in the catchment area, but . . . .

January 24th, 2007 at 12:47 am
13. Justine Says:

Maybe they’ll start investing in water purifying plants and *ahem* stop the irrigators from draining our underground reservoirs. Or at least restrict them.

Wouldn’t that be great? I mean what do they think is going to happen to their farms when the underground water runs out?

There’s been a lot of talk about water purifying plants and recycling sewage water which sound like a fabby idea to me. I can’t believe some premiers are all nay saying about it on account of they think the idea of drinnking recycled water is icky. Sure it sounds icky but you don’t call it drinking water unless it’s been okayed by health authorities.

I don’t think Australia has that much of a future unless we’re recycling sewage and grey water. I don’t find survival at all icky.

Yup, rain on a corrugated iron roof is one of the world’s best sounds.

Were you able to use much of the water that came down?

January 30th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
Rose Says:

I’m glad you mentioned the drought, Justine. I’m in an area that’s the one of the worst hit in the state (South Oz). I’m in a farming family, so you could imagine how having no rain affects us. Not only do we have shorter (and less) showers and little water for the garden, we also have no income. Everyone with anything to do with agriculture is in the same (or similar) boat, though. Those with irrigation are in a better position, but don’t get me started on irrigators who continually drain the aquifer and leave their neighbours crop’s brown and crispy while their’s are green and lush.

We had a little rain the other day. Actually, more than a little, it was more than we’d had the WHOLE year in 2006. You know it’s bad when you start breaking records like that. It turned our farm into a rushing mudslide for a few hours, and well all got out and paddled in it as if we’d never seen it before.

Justine, I agree wholeheartedly with Scott. The sound of rain is the most beautiful thing in the world! I love hearing it on the currugated-iron roof, especially when teamed with the smells of hot dry earth and moistening gumleaves.

I know the drought is hitting all of Australia hard. Every city’s catchments are down way too low, everyone’s on high-level water restrictions. Maybe this drought’ll wake governments up and force them to start treating water shortages as a major problem. Maybe they’ll start investing in water purifying plants and *ahem* stop the irrigators from draining our underground reservoirs. Or at least restrict them.

January 30th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
Rose Says:

Water purifying of sewage is indeed a nasty thought, but I agree with you, if it means “suvival”, then I’m not gonna stick my nose up at it. Australia really needs to start looking at those types of alternatives to rainwater, because there’s just not enough of it anymore. Or, if not purifying sewage, then at least seawater. God knows there’s enough of that.

Yeah, the ruddy irrigators’ll know about it first when their high-pressure sprinklers stop working and their troughs run dry. Not that that’d be good, seeing as non-irrigators like my family would know about it a close second, when the sheep started getting thirsty. Let’s hope the prices get too high for the irrigators to do it sustainably, or the government puts a cap on it before that happens.

The downpour the other day was pretty incredible, Justine, I don’t know if you got it like we did here in SA. An inch and a half in 15 minutes, our paddocks looked like rushing lakes! It filled up our dam that’s been dry for a year, but a lot of it was runoff, so it wasn’t as good for filling up tanks with drinking water. It’s given the paddocks a bit of a green sheen, though, which is good. And novel!

January 31st, 2007 at 4:19 am
16. Justine Says:

From what I’ve read—and obv. I’m no expert—desalination plants are more environmentally damaging than recycling plants. [Note to self: do more research!]

What do your family farm? And have long have they lived on the land? Must be rough given that SA is already the driest state of the driest country.

January 31st, 2007 at 4:40 am
Rose Says:

Pffft that’d be right. Desalinisation is environmentally damaging? I’ll never trust 60 Minutes ever again!

My family farm cereal crops and run sheep for wool and meat. We’ve been on the land in this area for about 70 years, but my family have always been farmers, ever since they came out from England in the early 1800’s. So yeah, it sucks to think that we could lose it all, as so many farmers already have in 2006. SA sure is a dry little place; most of it’s desert, but the bit that’s not still doesn’t get enough rain.

I wonder if this is due to just dry weather, el nino, or climate change? Because I don’t think anyone’s sure yet exactly what is causing all these nasty droughts.

January 31st, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Sophie Says:

And what’s worse is that the prime minister thinks “there is no substantial evidence of global warming”. Jez, look out your window will ya! I went skiing on the Murry the other week and the water level had dropped about 1.5 meters. Lots of small jetties where dry and platoons where being held on by ropes, no longer touching the water. It’s a shame the magnificent Murry has gone so downhill in the years. Soon it will all just be a bowl on decaying slush.

April 17th, 2007 at 10:56 am
karel Says:

Well, I accidentally stumbled on this site while doing some research on climate for my friend who studies Geography. I was actually looking for a story that appeared in, I believe it was the ‘Daily Telegraph’ in Sydney, that had a story on a girl in the country (Western NSW) at the age of seven and she had never seen any rain.
That’s unfortunately a lot that has befallen many farmers in the country areas.

I moved to Sydney around the time of the story and was (and still am) shocked at the way that water is wasted here. I have to tell people off on a weekly basis that they must abide by the water restrictions in order to assist the community in avoiding worstening the situation.
All I get in return is smart remarks indicative of the selfish masses. After all, you have to keep that car shiny (Too many cars are 4 wheel drives and most of them never saw a grain of dirt).
I even recycle my laundry water and although I live in a flat, it can still be done. Planet Ark promotes ‘Aware’ washing powder that is safe to use on plants. It contains no petrochemicals and is biodegradable. It has no phosphates and has not been animal tested. When collecting the rinse water, you can also scrub the floors and the balcony (maybe even wash the car). I believe the government will need to tax other powders, that way the penalty for wasting resources will be included in their price.
Time for the catch cry to be put to work:” Come on Aussie”

April 27th, 2007 at 4:34 am
karel Says:

OK, sorry to leave a link but it relates to my comments. This is not the staory I was looking for but similar. The child in this story is four years old: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,20615971-5009640,00.html

April 27th, 2007 at 5:04 am

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Justine Larbalestier

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