It’s no secret that water bills are up on the scale in Perth and throughout Western Australia. And the state government’s decision to double the capacity of the Southern Seawater Desalination Plant (SSDP) will lift water prices even further.
Even though rainfall was high in July 2011, dams around Perth are a little over a quarter full by the end of the month and that just shows how hot and dry it had been over the previous 12 months, not to mention the dwindling in-flow into reservoirs in the south of WA.
The concern over water provision in the southwest has been pretty bleak for a long time and that pressure has inevitably led Colin Barnett’s government to order the provision of 100 billion litres of extra drinking water a year through the expanded desal plant.
The government says this will secure future water needs for communities from Perth to the Goldfields and that the expansion of the new plant was essential.
“Despite the welcome, recent rain, long-term forecasts show the south-west corner of Western Australia will become even drier in the future,” Mr Barnett said. “It’s important we act now to ensure security for the Integrated Water Supply Scheme that supplies drinking water to Perth, Mandurah, the Goldfields and towns along the way to Kalgoorlie-Boulder.”
The first stage of the new plant near Binningup cost $955million so it’s certainly not a cheap way of getting water to our homes!
Expansion is said to cost an additional $450million.
“We had to act decisively as a Government and take direct action now. This decision is a major step in providing security to our water supplies even in the driest of years,” Barnett added.
It is estimated that the cost for consumers will be an extra dollar per week for households – that’s $52 a year so we would be wise to limit our use of water around the home wherever possible.
And what better place to save water than in the garden? Most domestic water use in Perth is in the garden so we should be serious about cutting down on water consumption.
As an example, a 50m2 synthetic grass lawn should save you around 200 litres of water per week in Perth when compared to a buffalo grass lawn of the same size. Obviously there are price considerations and they will only grow over time. Synthetic grass is a one-off investment however and will start saving you water, money and time from the moment it is installed.
Depending on the size and type of synthetic grass lawn you install, the money saved on water bills could effectively pay off your initial investment in less than three years and Green Planet Grass lawns are made in Australia and guaranteed not to fade for a minimum of eight years – can you afford not to save on your water bills?
