Page 3385 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 17 September 1991
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Those of us who have lived in Canberra for some time often wonder, as we drive to work or drive home at night, why, having had three or four days of heavy, soaking rain, the sprinklers are madly beetling away, pouring water onto grass that is already pretty well overdone. People who use our parks often find that they have been considerably overwatered. In fact, I have had a number of complaints over a number of years about that issue. There seems to be a need for Mr Wood's department, which handles the watering of our parks and gardens, to look into that matter.
As David Young often says on his radio program, there is a requirement to establish a watering regime whereby you water to run-off, stop for a period, and then start again. In most cases that is only 15 minutes. How many times have we driven round the streets of Canberra and seen water, literally litres of it, tumbling into our drainage system, into our stormwater system, because people have forgotten to turn off the tap or because they think that the more they put on the greener it is going to be. That may be the case, but they are also wasting a lot of water. That, Mr Speaker, is something that the Government should do for its parks and playgrounds.
Another thing that I think the Government should consider working on - I know that Public Works have been looking at the issue - is the use of more native grasses around the ACT in some of our parks, particularly on the sides of roads. I understand that one of the problems in the past has been the availability of seed. I believe that that is now pretty well under control and that by 1992 there should be more extensive work in that regard.
Another issue that I would like to raise in this debate - I have raised it with both responsible Ministers - is the use of water tanks at home, as opposed to using the treated water that we have at the moment. As I understand it, the cost of a water tank is often exceeded by the cost of the building permits required to install it. I think it is important that both Mr Connolly and Mr Wood look at that issue. I think I have actually got a letter from Mr Connolly about that. I think it is very important that people be encouraged to do that. There has been some concern expressed in the past about problems associated with the gunk that develops and falls on our roofs in an urban environment. I think that a bypass valve can be fitted to the tank that enables the first bit of rain to be removed via the bypass valve into the stormwater system. So, that solves that problem.
There is one final issue that I would like to talk about in relation to the charging system that we have at the moment. I received a phone call from a young mother in Tuggeranong who was complaining bitterly about the fact that she, as a mother with four children, had received an excess water bill of $20. In itself, that may not seem much. However, her complaint, and I think it is a legitimate complaint,
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