One area that seems to be missing in the recent Echo online (21 May) Cosmos article about water resources is local storage tanks.
We allow runoff from the roof to become contaminated runoff, lost down roadside drains, mixed with contaminants on the road amongst others.
Quality drainage off roofs is a resource, not a problem.
In our house, we have turned off the town water supply and installed 30,000 litres of tanks catching all the runoff from the roof and garage. In six or more years we have not had to access the town water supply except on rare occasions – say four months in total over that time period.
We use the tank water for all household and garden usages with ultra-filtration for potable needs.
The department of health does not support the use of tanks for total supply, but farmers and other rural users have been supplying their own water for generations and as far as I know this has never caused a health risk in rural areas.
The benefit of household tanks when connected to the whole house is that the main water supply dams (such as Rocky Creek Dam) do not have to supply all the needs of those connected – leaving the water in the dam for periods when we might run low in rainfall and need to access the town water supply.
Many people who have tanks don’t use them as a permanent household supply – in fact I think many hardly use them at all. The water stored in the tank ‘for a dry spell’, will only last a few weeks if a drought comes – better to leave the rainfall in the main storage dams ready for such circumstances.
There are many situations where tanks could be used to supplement local groups. Many large industrial buildings could easily supply a number of households. And even houses on small blocks could bury tanks under driveways, or share space with a neighbour; or, radically, be built into the house as a heat moderation element as well as water supply.
There are many opportunities for tanks. And they could be subsidised instead of spending fortunes on extra dams with the ecological problems they can cause.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
