Household Water Collection in Canberra

Policy has traditionally focused on increasing water supply by investing in large scale and centralised projects. The importance of securing water supply necessitates that all options be explored. Research has indicated that demand on water catchments can be substantially decreased when a large proportion of households reuse greywater and/or install rainwater tanks. This paper reports on an internet survey for 354 households in the Australian Capital Territory region. Statistical analyses examined the relationship between socio-economic and psychological variables and the likelihood of the garden being irrigated with greywater and/or rainwater. The results show income, gender, age and education could not differentiate residents who were irrigating their garden with water from a tank from resident who were not. Residents who used tank water on the garden had higher self reported understanding of a range of water supply options. Female participants and lower income residents were more likely to use greywater on their garden. Participants who irrigated the garden with greywater were more likely to judge various water collection and recycling proposals as appropriate. Concerns about water collection and reuse, which have led to some large scale projects being politically unacceptable, were not found to predict the use of tank water or greywater on the garden.