Page 4657 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 27 November 2019
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below the pre-millennium drought education period. People have shown they care, they understand it and are willing to act.
Over the last six months as we have gone through this particularly dry period a number of people have either spoken to me or contacted me to ask why the ACT is not bringing in stage 1 water restrictions. This shows the level of community concern and engagement on this issue. Of course, there are guidelines and those decisions are taken in a particular way, but the community understands the dryness going on and they are super conscious about making sure we use our water as judiciously as possible.
The ACT’s permanent water conservation measures have played a valuable role in reducing water demand and educating the community on water conservation. The continuation of education programs will be crucial for changing behaviour to reduce water demand, particularly at times when water restrictions are in place. In addition to targeting households, education programs and other water conservation measures can also be targeted at business and commercial users.
Water sensitive urban design is about increasing permeable surfaces to encourage water to soak into the soil to support planted spaces instead of being lost in stormwater drains. Slowing stormwater runoff and filtering it through soil and plants collects nutrients and mitigates flash flooding. It has benefits for soil health, water quality, green space, visual amenity and city cooling.
We are in a process of embedding water sensitive urban design into the development of our city, and I look forward to continuing to improve how we do this. This is particularly relevant as we implement Canberra’s living infrastructure plan to cool our city through increased tree canopy and green spaces. There are a number of other elements in that living infrastructure plan, but how we use our water and how we provide the permeable surfaces are an important part of that strategy. That living infrastructure will do a lot to help keep this city cool as we see average temperatures rise.
Under the parliamentary agreement we have been working to improve parks and increase urban green space in recognition of the many benefits it provides to our city, such as reducing the urban heat effect, providing cool places during heatwaves and providing habitat for wildlife. Making better use of recycled water and stormwater for irrigation will mean we can keep our city green and cool in a drier climate while also conserving our precious water supplies, particularly potable water supplies.
We are fortunate to have a system of healthy waterways throughout our city and a growing network of wetlands and stormwater retention ponds that treat our stormwater whilst also providing habitat and quality spaces for recreation. The wetlands I spoke about earlier under the funding package at Mitchell, Gungahlin, O’Connor, Dickson and Lyneham have helped to restore habitat, improve water quality, and make better use of our stormwater. They also provide cool areas for outdoor recreation and improve flood protection.
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