Perth's Water Future

Water, over the past few decades, has become an increasingly rare and vital commodity to our way of life.

Our planet surface is covered by up to 70% of water, of which only 2.5% is fresh water, with less than ~0.007% available for human use. Of this, currently 6 billion people on the planet use about 30% this available water, and it is predicted that by 2025 that percentage will rise closer to 70%. With increasing demand on our water resources, our supply of water is rapidly decreasing.

Perth's water usage and management could be greatly improved with the right management and simple conservation measures. A national comparison of capital cities shows that Perth has the highest water use and lowest water recycling of Australian major cities. We recylces just 6% of effluent, whereas Brisbane recylcles 37% and Adelaiade 30%.

To some extent, we can excuse Perth’s high water use because we endure longer and drier summers than many other Australian cities.

But that is also the reason why we should be leaders in water conservation and water recycling – and on these points we fail.

Tapping into our shrinking underground water supplies is not a long-term solution and could have serious environmental impacts.

The providing of water, as well as its management and conservation, has become an increasingly important and urgent task for our government.

Alison believes that we need to achieve greater water sustainability outcomes through better planning, managing and true cost pricing for this precious resource.