1.5m households involved: Academics at the University of NSW
used figures from Sydney Water, the census and the Department of Lands,
and rainfall modelling from Australian National University to gauge
water consumption across 140 Sydney districts and 1.5 million
households.
14pc more per person: They found that while residents of the
western suburbs used more water per household, residents of northern
and eastern Sydney used up to 14 per cent more water per person. The
suburbs with the highest per capita water use included northern Sydney,
the northern beaches, the inner and central west and Sutherland.
Results consistent across the board: The research found
residents of the eastern suburbs used more water than their western
counterparts in all four categories; freestanding houses, semis, small
and large blocks.
Dwelling type makes no difference: The study also revealed that
the amount of water used per person varied little between the different
types of dwellings. For example, in freestanding houses the average
annual per capita use was 104 kilolitres, and in high-rise units the
per capita use was 99 kilolitres. The lowest per capita users of
domestic water were residents of low-rise flats.
State Govt system flawed: Spokesperson Professor Randolph said
the finding had serious implications for the State Government’s
commitment to urban consolidation, based on an assumption that medium-
and high-density housing lead to substantially lower domestic water
use.
Consumption reduction unlikely: “Households in higher-density
flats are certainly smaller than those in houses, but on a per capita
basis there is little to be gained in terms of overall water
conservation between high- and low-density housing. Therefore policies
designed to reduce water consumption based on dwelling types alone are
unlike to achieve any significant reductions in consumption levels,”
Randolph said.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 1-2/4/2006, p. 9
Source: Erisk