Keep the corduroy clean. Photo: BC Laserwolf
As Australians, we enjoy the simple things. Sun, waves and beers. And we should, because we live in the so called ‘lucky country’: blessed with beautiful weather, beautiful weather, and good times. So, as we live on the driest inhabitable continent in the world, you would think we as a nation would be as water conscious as we could in an effort to protect our unique and stunning land. But instead, we need ever blooming gardens to be the envy of Old Lady Jefferson down the street.
Australia is the world’s largest household consumer of water. And by a fair margin. We consume on average 341,000 litres of water per person, per day. The next closest nation is Canada at 279,000 litres pp, pd. Perhaps even more staggering is when we add farming practices and industrial production to that figure, we balloon out to 1.4 million litres per person, per day. And all from a nation that is practically a desert. To put this in perspective, the global average household consumption of water is 57,000 litres pp, pd.
I walk down my street in coastal Western Australia, and I am peppered with visions of full-bloomed gardens of roses. Given WA has just recorded one of the driest winter seasons in history, I wondered how this could be. All of a sudden I see Old Lady Jefferson toiling away in her colourful plot. Watering, raking, digging and just generally getting in the zone – gardening style. Don’t get me wrong, I love our older population, especially my Nana. But the difference between Old Lady Jefferson and my Nana is Nana used only native plants. Her garden was always abuzz with wattles, bushes and Banksias, all teeming with pollen-collecting insects. These plants that have adapted to the harsh surroundings of Australia. They require minimal water and fuss. As I cast my eye over O.L.J’s pride and joy, it’s evident that the only native plant in sight is an old gum tree that was probably planted when she was a young vivacious girl.
I’m not saying that our inappropriately high water usage is due to O.L.J and her mates having rose-wars. But I think as a nation we need to start educating from the school level to ensure our future leaders have a sense of urgency and conservation toward our most precious resource. And I mean the most precious. Because we can’t drink iron ore.
