Richard Swinton, Clunes
I took a short walk down to the Clunes cafe this morning and vast quantities of pure clean rainwater was spilling out of every household stormwater pipe into the gutter to be joined with contaminated water from the road – contaminated with oil, rubber and dog droppings.
A rainwater tank will refill with any reasonable rainfall event and if this tank is a reasonable size, that household can stop drawing water from the Rous water system.
Surely this would mean, if many people install tanks, that the drawdown on the dam will be significantly reduced and the need for another expensive, eco-vandalising dam ceased?
The challenge is that Rous make their money by selling water, and rainwater tanks will reduce their income source. Perhaps they need to change their focus to the services water provides and create income from design and installation of tanks – amongst other ideas!
Then we would not need the expensive proposed Dunoon dam.
The biggest challenge is that Rous only supplies bulk water to the member councils This needs to change with Rous being responsible from catchment management right through to household and commercial taps. This would open up a whole plethora of opportunities for improved and innovative service rather than just selling bulk water.
