Water Restrictions as way of Moderating Demand

Restrictions on the use of water supplied by water corporations are frequently introduced in Australian cities whenever the demand for water exceeds the experienced or anticipated supply. This paper examines evidence from a stratified random survey of 2179 households in Sydney in a period when restrictions on domestic water use outside the home had just been imposed. The paper explores attitudes and responses to the imposition of water restrictions on external water uses in different kinds of dwellings in different parts of Sydney. The survey focused on reported water consumption behaviour and was enriched by information obtained from a series of follow-up focus groups. The research revealed a range of responses which, in part, reflected differences in dwelling attributes and capacities of water consumers to respond to water restrictions, which in turn is reflected in differences in attitudes towards water conservation. Introduction Restrictions on the use of water supplied by water corporations are frequently introduced in Australian cities whenever the demand for water exceeds the experienced or anticipated supply they are most often related to drought periods. That is, restrictions have been deemed necessary when water authorities have not been able to increase their supply quickly enough. This was not an uncommon experience in the period following the Second World War when Australian cities grew at unprecedented rates. More recently the situation has been compounded because the increase in demand due to increased per capita consumption and the great increase in urban populations have meant that nearly all cities and towns in Australia have reached the limit of the supplies close to hand. The rainfall in dam catchments has revealed a degree of variability that may be due to long run cyclical variation and or to the increasing effects of climate change. Either way, the supply of water for urban centres is now more variable than it was. This means there is a greater probability that demand will exceed the ‘safe’ level of supply. Given that domestic water use accounts for the bulk of all urban water use (for example, in Sydney domestic use accounted for 70% of total water consumption in 2003), water authorities have responded by developing programs to moderate demand. These include encouraging households to install dual flush toilets, low flow shower heads and aerating taps on hand basins and kitchen sinks. They have also encouraged households to adopt more water efficient gardening practices and to undertake water audits to identify ways in which water consumption might be reduced. These demand management policies and programs have had a degree of success, for example, with 395,000 households signing up for Sydney Water’s ‘Water Fix’ shower and tap replacement package by early 2007 (Sydney Water 2007). The new BASIX building design codes introduced in 2004 in NSW have also helped to increase public awareness of domestic water saving, although this initiative has so far only had a marginal impact in direct terms, limited as it is to new dwelling construction and major renovations (BASIX 2007). Water authorities have nonetheless also felt the need to reduce water consumption by more direct intervention, especially during drought periods. In Sydney, Australia’s largest city, mandatory water restrictions have been the main domestic water demand management method introduced recently as the city’s water storage levels have reached historically low levels (Sydney Morning Herald, 2006). Typically, water restrictions have been introduced through a series of sequentially more proscriptive ‘Levels’ to reduce water use (Sydney Water 2007). Water restrictions introduced in other Australian cities are similar. They share two basic features: 1. The restrictions and their severity are linked to storage levels (note here that in all major Australian cities and towns the primary source of water supplies are regional rivers that have been dammed and the impounded water transferred to the city for consumption. The point has now been reached where there are few additional water resources available to be exploited for ISBN 978-0-646-48194-4 SOAC 2007 535 transfer to the cities without major changes in the use of water for primary production and or without major damage to the eco-services of the river systems affected). 2. In the domestic sector the restrictions are directed at the ‘external’ consumption of households, that is, the consumption other than the water used inside the dwelling. Although restrictions apply to commercial and industrial undertakings, they are primarily designed to reduce domestic water used on gardens, on car washing, swimming pools and hosing down of hard surfaces around homes. The use of water outside the home is not insubstantial and is a valid target for water authorities in their attempt to manage water demand. ‘External’ domestic water consumption in the Sydney Metropolitan Area was estimated to account for 23 % of total domestic water consumption in 2003 (Sydney Water 2007) (IPART 2004), while external consumption in New South Wales as a whole was estimated to be 25% of total domestic consumption in 2003 (ABS, 2003), the difference relating largely to climatic differences and the greater proportion of dwelling with external areas outside Sydney. Figure 1: Comparison between actual weekly water use and 10 yr averages, Sydney Metropolitan Region, October 2003 to September 2007 0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000 120,000 140,000