Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Sydney water, or lack of it

Sydney has been suffering one of the worst droughts in its history, and the solution proposed by the State government is to build a multi-billion dollar de-salination plant.

This is in a State where fresh drinking water is used from everything to cooking and drinking, to flushing the toilets, filling swimming pools to 'hosing' (cleaning) the driveway. And in this situation, we have exhortations to reduce individual usage (please be nice & don't water your plants between 9.00am and 7.00pm).

When will the thickies in state government realise that the only way to make people appreciate the value of something is to ration it by price? If something is cheap (almost free - Australia's water costs are amongst the lowest in the developed world) then people will not accord it the value they should. They'll continue to waste it - wash the driveway with it, fill the swimming pool without a thought. What's the solution?

Put up the price, you thickies!