Water Tank - should I bother, with Desalination coming?

[Gravy258]

What the local government decides to do in the future who knows. They'll be wanting us to use heaps of de-sal when it comes on line.
I can't see much point of getting more water tanks, but the boss wants them.
We only use water for the equivelant of a one person household(just the two of us), which will drop even further with the demise of our toploader and the purchase of a over priced Miele frontloader, we have a 2700L tank for the vegie garden also.
The boss wants two 9000L tanks for the toilet and Laundry and another 2700 for the vegie garden. This should get our mains use right down. Is this overkill for suburban Melbourne?
Certainly overkill for the bank balance at $6500 for the tanks and pump, est. $5000 to get our in built gutters ripped out and re done to one spout. Then theres the $2500 for the frontloader. No change out of $14K, with the rebate of $900 paying only for a plumber, which will be charging guess how much, yes $900. So thats $15K it'll end up costing.
A bit for a mechanic and a nurse.

[rhancock]

Hi Gravy,

Sad as it is you're right of course - whatever you do it'll be wrong (either for the boss, the bureaucrats or the pollies!)

However, if you take your thinking a bit further, and consider the sustainability of all your actions, rather than just focusing on water use, you get a slightly different viewpoint.

If your washing machine is buggered, then yes, buy a new, water efficient one, but if its not, then throwing it away and buyiung a new one will be more harmful environmentally than keeping it. It takes a lot of metal to make a new machine, lots of oil to transport it to you, etc. Same for your gutters, if its time to replace them, fair enough, but pulling out good gutters and downpipes is a waste of mineral resources, as much as hosing the drive is a waste of water resources.

I think the point is, when you have to replace or fix something, then you should consider the most sustainable way of fixing it, ie, what materials you use, what was involved in getting them to you, how they will be used, how long they will last for, how you will dispose of the ones you're throwing away, and the new ones when it comes time to replace them.

But I think that replacing stuff which still has useful life in it, on the basis of one measure of its use is suspect, unless there are very compelling reasons, eg, low water showers or and flushers, which are very small items. Electic hot water systems are probably on the borderline depending on how much you use them.

(Rant warning!) Unfortunately politicians find it more effective to focus on one issue at a time which needs fixing, and find it particularly useful to get the electorate to believe it is their own fault and they need to fix it themselves.