Drought advice from the land Down Under

[Auggie]

By Patrick Whyte, freelance journalist, Brisbane, Australia (essay originally appeared in the L.A. Times)

In 2008, my corner of Queensland, Australia, entered its 10th year of drought — officially the worst period on record. Australia is the driest inhabited continent on Earth, but until recently that was never a huge problem for the 90 percent of us who live in coastal cities and towns. We always had thought of dry spells as the farmers' problem.

But as the recent drought dragged on, fruit and vegetable prices began to rise. Public parks went from green to brown. In May 2005, restrictions were imposed on watering gardens, washing cars and filling pools. After that, I could water the vegetable patch in my back yard with only a bucket, and then only three times a week after 7 p.m. on my allotted days.

<snip>

The water authority, having instituted all possible outdoor restrictions, had no choice but to take water saving into people's homes — where the majority of water is used. It became personal.
The authority set a target of reducing average daily water use from 80 gallons a person to 37 gallons — or 140 liters — a person. (In the United States, people use an average of between 100 and 150 gallons a day.)

MORE: http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2009/01/09/opinion/editorial/doc4966e029d2fcc801141856.txt

Anyone know a good rain dance?

[Xithras]

1. La Nina is confirmed, so this may be most of us next summer.

At this point, I'm very happy to be on a 40 foot well 15 feet over the water table. Most of the state is going to be in a huge amount of trouble next summer though.

By the way, ANYONE planning to garden in California next summer should consider putting in a downspout cachement system now, before the winter ends. Combined with drip irrigation, a properly designed cachement can seriously cut your municipal water usage in the garden. They are also exempt from outdoor water restrictions. My brother-in-law just picked up a used 500 gallon potable storage tank for $200 and is in the process of ducting all of his rainspouts to it right now. He did some math and figured out that 500 gallons will cover nearly all of his water needs in his container garden for most of the summer. Even if outdoor watering is banned completely, he'll be able to keep his garden producing. If he does run out, he'll augment using greywater from the house.