OK been awhile, but I have gone a little blog crazy today....
Yesterday our 24,000 litre rain water tank arrived, to be connected up next week - very exciting!
This will be added to the 3 existing 1400 litre tanks we have. When we are finished they will all be hooked up to the big'un and a pump will ensure that the rain water is pumped into the house for us to use.
Since we don't use that much water on watering our garden, we aim to get 6-8 months a year running on rain water.
What really bugs me is when you mention to people you are going to set up to use rain water you get..."why? It isn't like water costs that much? You still have to pay service fees and stuff."
Yep you do and yep water doesn't cost much right now, but I'm not sure it will stay that way.
Besides this isn't so much about the money we might save but more about trying to use the rainwater and take less out of our dying Murray water system. Don't get me wrong we are not labouring under any illusions that the small bit of water we use will suddenly resurrect the Murray if we are not taking it. We also recognise how much water industry and farming use and that individual home owners usage is really a drop in the ocean.
BUT every little bit has to help, and even if it doesn't amount for much in real terms right now, perhaps the message it sends to our kids about trying to be mindful of ways that we can better use our resources, will have a bigger impact in the future.
If all of our kids were learning the lessons of renewable energy resources, electricity audits on home power use, how to collect and save water for the times when it isn't so abundant, then just maybe we might make some bigger steps in the future than we are doing right now. The apathetic amongst us certainly are not leading the charge for future action now, are they?
Next stop solar panels!
2 comments:
I agree with you 100%. We only have a 10,000 tank which we had installed underground last year, but hope to put in more tanks along the outside walls and solar panels. When we can afford it.
As you said, if everyone did their best to use what water was available to them and also didn't moan about paying their water bills, it maybe would make a difference.
That is so inspiring! We have yet to have anything like that, but a friend of mine has solar-panels to heat their water and I'm pushing really hard to get them at home. People don't realise how much processing water costs the environment, and how much better the water treatment plants would be with a lower volume of water going through them, if a whole bunch of people switched to rainwater tanks then the whole system works much better!
While I'm on fieldwork I use groundwater (dangerous I know) and it tastes so much better than city, treated water, even though apparently our water is of quite high 'quality' which is the other appeal - rainwater just tastes better!
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