Australian university students with something "eco" on their minds are being asked to step forward with their ideas on sustainable energy solutions for the 2009 Bayer-UNEP Eco-Minds Forum, and be in with a chance to represent Australia at an International Forum in Auckland, New Zealand.

In partnership with the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), the Bayer Eco-Minds program aims to foster awareness, thirst and passion for the environment amongst students from across the Asia Pacific region. In return, the winning students receive an all expenses paid trip to Auckland for the opportunity to present their ideas and participate in solution-orientated group work, cross-cultural activities and knowledge sharing in a bid to tackle real-life sustainable development issues.

In Australia, the initiative is being supported by leading environmentalist Jon Dee who believes the Eco-Minds Forum is an ideal opportunity for students to put their passion to good use.

"What better way for young Aussie students to get their suggestions for sustainable energy solutions out there," says Dee. "Eco-Minds provides the perfect forum for tomorrow's leaders to exchange ideas with each other in a proactive, pan-Asia effort to make a very real difference to the future of our environment, today."

2009 will see the third bi-annual Eco-Minds Forum take place. At the 2007 Forum in Thailand, university students Rachel Cain from the University of Adelaide, Laura Joseph from the University of Western Sydney and Eric Knight from Sydney University represented Australia when the best minds from across Asia Pacific came together to explore real-life issues and sustainable development ideas for fresh water supply.

Rachel Cain, who has been involved with the Youth Environment Council of South Australia, as both a member and mentor, and has completed voluntary work in Central America, says:

"Eco-Minds has helped to fast track my career by providing me with an unforgettable experience to work alongside students from across the region to try and solve issues of sustainability that affect all of us.

"Each student brought their own knowledge and skill-set which helped fuel the discussion and ideas and allowed each of us to learn so much from each other. It's opened up doors for me and I've created some wonderful friendships." said Ms Cain.

The 2009 Eco-Minds Youth Forum will focus on a topic that is of growing importance to the world - Sustainable Energy Systems: Challenges and Opportunities. As part of the week-long event, participants will look at some of the challenges around energy supply, including climate change, and the practical solutions that can overcome such challenges with a visit to New Zealand's hydro and geothermal supply systems.

For those "eco-minded" students who have ever seen something and thought "I could do it better", this is their chance. The Bayer-UNEP Eco-Minds is open to all university students aged 18-24 years with delegates from Singapore, Thailand, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, India, Indonesia and China attending.

For entry details and application forms, students can log on to

www.eco-minds.bayer.com, or contact the Australian Eco-Minds Co-ordinator on

(02) 4736 0892. Entries close on 28 March 2009.

The Age reports of an ongoing tug of war within the Victorian State Governments on the viability of desalination plants verses rainwater tanks.  The Age mentions they have obtained a report by by University of Melbourne systems scientist and microbiologist Peter Coombs which appear to challenge the Government's big-project desalination direction.

In one report Peter Coombs argues that previous simplistic estimates for water volumes generated by tanks in Melbourne are wrong, and badly misjudge the capability of tanks to supplement water supply.

Although he refused to comment on the reports, Professor Coombes confirmed his work showed a tank in each Melbourne household could deliver a city-wide 120 gigalitres a year, more than twice previous estimates by water supplier Melbourne Water.

More details at The Age

The Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA), in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's WaterSense programar holding a Water Smart Innovations Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada from October 8-10, 2008.

Billed as the largest conference of its kind in the world, this inaugural conference and expo will showcasing new water efficiency technology to industry and business from around the world.

From the look of the website, it's shaping up to be as big as the PR speculates with so decent major sponsors including Rain Bird, MWH, Corma and Toto.

Check out the Water Smart Innovations Conference website for details.

The Brisbane Times has reported that the Brisbane City Council has suffered a significant blow out in their budget for rainwater tank rebates.
So far rainwater tank rebates have cost Brisbane City Council in excess of $12.6 million, more than they has budgeted for in 2007-08.

I'm sure the council isn't impressed with this, but I sure am. Goes to show how proactive people are being when it comes to saving water in their homes.

The Age reports that Level 6 water restrictions have been announced by the Queensland state government on Monday the 12th November. See my previous post about Stage 6 Water restrictions and what they mean.

Here's a 3 minute video from Retriever Communications, in cooperation with Sydney Water, on the benefits of using a field inspection program called the Love Your Garden program. The campaign is aiming to help Sydney siders reduce the amount of water wasted on gardens. View the Love Your Garden video.

The Queensland government had suggest that level 6 water restrictions will soon be in place for South East Queensland. The draft for level 6 water restrictions seems to focus more on businesses than individuals, so there's no real surprises for home users. Here's what this will mean for domestic water use:

• penalties for water use above 200 litres per person in a household
• For such premises reticulated (town) water is not permitted to be used for the filling, partial filling, or topping up of a rainwater tank or rainwater storage facility

you can read more about stage 6 water restrictions on the Qld water commission website.

Water tank experts have expressed concerns over the safety of some water tank instillations. Experts are suggesting that if rainwater tanks have not been installed on a solid base, the footing may become unstable causing safety issues around homes.� They have also suggested that plastics used in imported tanks may degrade quickly in harsh Australian conditions.� Full report in the Sunday Mail.

Year 7 Berwick (Victoria) school kids from Kambrya College have begun a water saving initiative to reduce their average daily collective water use from 3800 down to 1000 litres.� Some of the water saving initiatives include reducing shower times and recycling gray water to the garden with buckets placed in the shower.� See the Star News for the full article.

Treehugger has an interesting report on the issue of world wide water table levels.� The article states that many countries are over pumping their aquifers and that the current level of water harvesting from these aquifers is unsustainable.� When the aquifers run dry, irrigation of farmland will be reduced, thus reducing food supplies.� Check out the water table treehugger article.