Of all the water on earth, only 3% is fresh water. Two thirds of this 3% is locked in polar ice caps, glaciers, the atmosphere and soil. That only leaves 1% of the earth’s water available for use.
Australia is the driest continent on earth, surrounded by seawater that is unusable for domestic purposes. Our water usage has increased by 65% since 1985 and as the population continues to grow, demand for water will also grow. Proposed desalination plants to convert seawater to potable
water have prohibitive construction costs and would consume enormous amounts of energy
while operating.
At this time, Australia’s only choice is to optimize the use of its portion of that 1% available water. Reducing consumption relieves pressure on our waterways, sewage infrastructure and treatment systems.
In this instance, less IS more.
If Melbourne alone reduced it’s water consumption by 1%, it would save an incredible 6.25 billion 1 Litre bottles of water or 2,500 Olympic swimming pools per year.
Every day Sydney Water delivers 1.7 billion litres of water to Sydney siders and 1.3 billion litres is returned to be treated. This is approximately a 77% return. Melbourne returns approximately 70%.
In each instance, a large percentage of this water is pure potable water, returned wastefully, without any option until now, until EcoVerta |
