Perth Population Policy: Populate and Perish!

Perth rushes rapidly towards a future full of people and cars. Agamedes does his best to support this growth.

Today, I saved my six buckets of water. As requested by Water Corporation, I did my best. Perth is perpetually short of water. I helped to protect our way of life and to protect our state's future, by saving six buckets of water.

Well, not so much "save". But I did recycle six buckets of grey water.

Do you need new -- lateral -- thinking for your own problems? email nick leth at gmail dot com. Need solutions? No worries. Now.

In today's paper there is an article headed, "Perth in 2050: full of people and cars" (The West, 5 Mar 2010). Our population "will more than double" by the year 2050. Even before that, by 2020, "Cost of traffic congestion in Perth is tipped to increase 65%". That's just ten years from now.

And in the here and now, "Perth residents are the worst in the country when it comes to cutting their water use". Oh dear. What can I do to save water?

The washing machine was running. I pulled the wastewater hose from its drain and let the "grey" wastewater fill the laundry tub. I poured the grey water onto fruit trees around the garden.

I know that six buckets of water were involved. I used a bucket to shift it all from the tub to the garden. Look at all the water that I saved!

But...

All I did was to water the garden with grey water.

For several years, our small number of fruit trees have struggled. We water only on allowed days, for just 20 minutes per reticulation station. The vegetable garden is a lost cause -- no vegetable can survive our summer heat on that small amount of water. Our fruit trees struggled -- less fruit and what there was was dry.

Having used grey water on the garden -- water which would otherwise have run down the drain -- will I reduce the regular reticulation of the garden? No way! That grey water was a bonus. I will do it again, whenever I have the time.

How to really save water

Due to Perth's perpetual water shortage, our garden has suffered. I like to have a green and growing garden.

Apparently, "Perth is the quarter acre block capital of the country, with the lowest proportion of units and apartments". Perhaps the majority of Perth residents would enjoy a green and growing garden...

For whatever reason, people use water.

More people, more water used.

If we want to really "save" water -- reduce the population.

"Perth's population will more than double..." Will more than double? Do we have no choice in that? If we want to save water -- we could constrain population growth.

If we do nothing -- Perth's population will more than double. If we do not want that -- with all the traffic congestion, water shortages, etc, etc that population growth brings -- what can we do to control our population growth?

Sure, I could live in a dust-bowl. I don't really need to wash. The car... well... I'm already saving water by not washing the car.

But if we want to maintain our standard of living -- it's time to do something. Control of rampant population growth is a place to start. It's not easy.

If we do nothing -- if we just accept that population growth is unstoppable -- then we have already lost. Lost our living space. Lost our cheap water. Lost our standard of living.

All we will have, will be a huge polluting population, living cheek by jowl -- unwashed -- in a concrete environment. If we can still afford the concrete.

It's our choice. And it is a choice.

Independent thinking & independent analysis of your problems by Agamedes Consulting. Support for your thought: email nick leth at gmail dot com