Grey Water in the Land of Oz
73What water shortage?
My family has been living in Melbourne, Australia in the state of Victoria for a few weeks. It's the middle of winter here (July), and Melbourne is a coastal city. It is about as far south as you can go on the mainland of the continent (well beyond the tropic of capricorn), and is situated in the eastern part of the country. The latitude of Melbourne is around 37 degrees. So one might suppose that it rains a lot here in winter, and indeed it is supposed to. Well, being from Oregon, I really haven't seen serious rainage yet. The sky greys over nearly every afternoon and looks threatening, but it's mostly bluster and maybe a pavement wetting or a little drizzle here and there. I've needed an umbrella only twice. The locals tell me this drought has been going on for over a decade. Perhaps it is a manifestation of "global warming," really better termed as "global climate change."
The drought is the evil behind the Melbourne fires that happened last summer (January, February) before we came here. I'm told that the water reserve in Melbourne is down to ten percent, and that normally at this time of year it should be way higher than that. Water rationing is in effect. Anyone caught watering with a hose outside of their allotted watering day can be fined. Watering lawns is prohibited altogether. Things look green now, but I have a feeling that the place will get a parched look by summer. Previous rules against having greywater systems have been lifted, and now many people have installed "tanks."
What we have been doing
The lady who owns these digs keeps old bathwater and uses it to flush the toilets. This is fine for her, as she lives alone. We tend to take showers, but we have taken a page from her book and strictly limit them to four minutes. We put the bucket in the shower too and collect what water we can. I've taken to siphoning the rinse water when I wash dishes, and the dishwater as well if it isn't too disgusting.
We've also moved to having a European style wash every second day rather than a full shower. It's actually better for your skin NOT to shower every day, especially if the water is very hot and/or chlorinated.
Our landlady does not have a system in place to recycle laundry rinse water. However, neither does she have an electric dryer. Having to hang everything out, or put it on an inside drying rack that takes forever makes you think twice about just tossing your clothes in the wash.
One of our friends showed us the tank in her back yard. This tank collects rainwater from the roof that would normally drain into the storm drain. She may have it plumbed into her washing machine for the rinse water as well. We're told that up until recently such tanks were illegal, and to the best of my knowledge they still are in the USA due to health concerns.
Greywater is not without issues, and possible health concerns. Here are a load of them! For example, it's fine to use greywater to flush your toilet, but if you plumb it into the toilet tank you will wreck your toilet. Greywater is not supposed to be kept for long or it will fester. And, depending on the source of it, it is not to be sprayed or applied to food crops that are eaten raw.
I am not sure how these backyard tanks that people have avoid keeping the greywater beyond its shelf life of 24 hours, or maybe they add something to it to keep the festering under control.
The point is, that in the USA I had heard of a few really handy and knowledgeable DIYers having workable greywater systems as long as they didn't get caught, and I once knew a woman with an actual composting toilet. But in Australia, the water shortage has forced the people to deal with this issue on a large scale, and dealing with it they are.
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We live on the south coast of England, where everybody thinks the weather is wet all the time. However, 3 summers ago out local system almost ran out of water, following an exceptionally dry winter. At least one village was served by a daily tank truck - locals had to line up with containers for their daily ration.
Neither of us has installed greywater tanks - although we know people who have, but Pat now only uses rain water for her garden. She has 3 water barrels, and now never uses a hose in the garden.
Thanks for an interesting Hub. Looking forward to hearing more about Melbourne.
Hot Dorkage, thanks for this most interesting hub. How are you liking Australia besides the water shortage?
Standards of cleanliness, healthfuness and hygiene vary from place to place, depending on the availability of resources. The sad thing, to me, is that laws in most populated areas require everyone to abide by a specific standard. If grey water is legal today, but was illegal yesterday, then it just points out how arbitrary the law is. If more people had been allowed to make a personal choice to use grey water (or not) in the past, perhaps things would not be so desperate now.
Wow! Hub pages comments. Well as big cities go I love Melbourne. It is ethnically very diverse and there are interesting shops where nothing is labelled in English and you're not even sure what the merchandise *IS* or what it is for. The English speaking people tend to be extremely friendly and genuinely helpful, unlike in Mexico, where, more often than not if you ask for directions to a place they will point you the wrong direction just for a laugh.
The cost of food is high, but that's a worldwide trend that I noticed back stateside. There is a huge diversity of restaurants, pretty much everything except Mexican and South American. An enterprising Mexican could make a killing here if they could get the authentic chiles.
Although it's "winter" there are palm trees everywhere, and it doesn't really get that cold, just a bit chilly and windy.
Yes, of course the laws are arbitrary and make assumptions about people's stupidity. But when people have to be, they can be more clever than governments give them credit for. A lot of laws are based on a populations's shared thought patterns and practices, not on any real logic. The country that's the most smug and resistant to change is the USA.
They have excellent curbside recycling here, better than in Oregon.
We don't have a vehicle until September. Fuel is outrageous but people drive anyway just like in the states. The public transport is pretty good but not horribly cheap. The trams run in a bike spoke pattern from the center to the burbs. And there are buses to cross from burb to burb but they shut down early, so you have to go in and back out in the evening if you want to go somewhere other than the center. I have the use of a bike.
I have some pictures on my flickr and there will be more later. http://www.flickr.com/photos/napiobai/
Interesting hub about life in the land of Oz. In the UK where there is plenty of rain and water and yes, snow and ice at the moment, life is ...uh...different! Mind you, the warm Oz climate is something to definitely like. I heard Oz is a friendly place, the people that give wrong directions remind me of a holiday I had once in the West of Ireland where locals laughed at my british accent and always sent me to the wrong place!
The Ozzies are friendly indeed. But Melbourne is not so warm. However Central Australia was boiling, and Adelaide was way hot when I visited in December. Cairns was very pleasant, even in september, but then it's tropical. And Sydney is way warmer than Melbourne. And I imagine that Hobart is coldest of all, haven't been there yet. Ah yes, the Irish have fun with the Sasanai.
Are you still in Australia hot Dorkage? The massive floods have been something else - broke a lot of the drought.
Nope I'm back home in good ol' OR, but some of my friends posted pictures of the floods. It may have eased the drought in Victoria, but SA and NT and of course WA are still very very dry and always have been.
Paraglider Level 5 Commenter 2 years ago
Oregon to Melbourne - you don't do things by halves do you? This was a fascinating account of the drought problem as it affects communities. Here, it only rains about 3 or four days a year so they spend a LOT on desalination plants.