Water Challenge

The Challenge

Melbourne (Australia) is currently subject to stringent water restrictions. After several years of below average rainfall, water storages are very low with little prospect of a return to comfortable levels soon.

Our Household

Our household comprises two adults and two teenage children. We have lawns front and rear which have always been watered when legal. Both are now brown. The rear receives buckets of water collected in the shower. Other areas of the garden can be watered for a maximum of four hours per week with a hand-held hose. Dripper systems can be used but are not installed at our house.

Our toilets are dual flush and showers are moderately water efficient. We have become much more water conscious when washing dishes and clothes. We have an evaporative air-conditioner.

Weekly Meter Readings

We have decided to read the meter every week so that we can closely monitor our performance against previous years. The units are kilolitres (219 imperial gallons, 264 US gallons) The meter can only be read to the nearest kilolitre. See how it works for an explanation of how meter readings are converted to graphs.

Reduction in Consumption

The graphs (above and left) clearly show that we have consistently used less water in 2007 than we did in either 2006 or 2005. The high consumption for the week beginning 19th February is due to a garden hose bursting and not being noticed for some hours.

Previous Year Figures

Weekly readings were not taken in previous years which means that those will be average figures. The 2006 figures are largely based on the bills that arrive every two months, sufficient to provide a comparison figure for the 2007 readings.

The "refrigerator notice board" is updated each week as a silent reminder that our efforts are paying off.