BOOST: More water will be transferred into Suma Park Dam, pictured here in April, 2009.
NATIONAL Water Week is an annual event held in October across Australia, hosted by each state and territory. It involves the community protecting and conserving our precious water resources.
National Water Week was first held in 1993. The initiative is designed to help members of the community of all ages and walks of life to understand and take action to protect and conserve water and habitats.
During National Water Week Australians are encouraged to protect, conserve and get involved in water resource management
All Orange citizens are encouraged to participate in water related activities such as stream watch, Landcare groups and catchment management.
When ECCO organised a public meeting to hear about the Macquarie River pipeline it was a encouraging to note that about 100 people turned out to hear Paul Wettin of the Water Alliance discuss aspects of the pipeline proposals. That is, if 100 people out of nearly 40,000 can be called encouraging. Still, it was a start.
As well as National Water Week we should write March 22 in next year’s diaries - that is World Water Day. World Water Day 2012 was the best ever, prompting UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon to state “producing enough food to feed the world’s rapidly growing population will require the international community to ensure the sustainable use of the world’s most critical finite resource - “water”.
You can read more on what happened last World Water Day at their website - www.unwater.org.
When we discuss saving water let’s ask an embarrassing question - in the driest continent in the world can we really continue to have the luxury of that very European thing - a grass lawn. Lawns need watering and after watering they need mowing and after mowing - correct, they need watering again. Is this a sensible use of water?
Wetlands however are a much more sensible use of water - they provide habitat for wildlife as well as saving water for further use.
Orange City Council is to be commended on the constructed wetlands they have developed based on Ploughmans Creek.
The Ploughmans Creek Stormwater Harvesting Scheme is one of these initiatives and follows on the heels of the multi award winning Blackmans Swamp Creek Stormwater Harvesting Scheme.
This scheme will transfer a portion of the storm flows from the Ploughmans Creek catchment into Suma Park Dam where it will supplement the city’s raw water supplies.