Prime Minister John Howard today announced that the government would offer Australian Schools a $50,000 voucher to in assist in the instillation of solar hot water systems and water tanks.

The Environment minister Malcolm Turnbull also told ABC radio there would be a $1000 assistance package for families earning less than $100,000 to replace existing electric hot water systems to a solar.

Check out the full story in The Australian.

Brisbane physicist Dr Ian Edmonds has had a novel idea for transporting water from rain soaked North Queensland down to the drier regions of South East Queensland and NSW.  Dr Edmonds has suggested floating large volumes of fresh water down the Australian east coast in large plastic bladders.  With the natural current that flows from north to south down the East Coat of Australia, Edmonds suggests it would be cheaper and more environmentally friendly than desalination plants or pipelines.

I think we need more novel thinking like this to solve our water woes and to solve the global warming crisis we're facing.

An article in The Boarder Mail reports:

LABOR leader Kevin Rudd wants to put a rainwater tank in every home and has pledged $250 million to get things started.

Mr Rudd yesterday said a federal Labor government would tackle the water crisis by offering up to $500 each to 500,000 homes to help install tanks or grey water piping.

“We want every Australian home and its roof to be a personal water catchment area, maximising reuse and collection of rain water,” he said.

Combined this with State government rebates, this may tip a few people over the edge and get them installing rainwater tanks and greywater systems.

A recent article in The Age outlines how one family has discovered a novel way to save water and electricity in the home, bribe the kids! If the electricity and water usage in GREEN challenge entrant Jill Forwards household decreases, the kids get a pocket money bonus. What a great way to make children more aware of their actions and help the environment.

Wouldn't it be great if our electricity and water usage could be tracked automatically and electronically.  Households could join a nationwide competition to reduce water usage and electricity consumption.   Schools could compete against schools and businesses against businesses.  Surely this kind of competition would drive households and organisations to invest in green technology and products such as solar hot water, rainwater tanks, and Compact Fluorescent Globes.

South Australian State Government has issued new water restrictions on Adelaide household water use.  Beginning July 1 there will be a ban on watering household lawns with.
State Water Security Minister Karlene Maywald said the temporary "stringent restrictions" – applying during July and possibly longer – were a result of record low inflows into the River Murray due to the recent crippling drought.

"We are asking people to turn off their outside taps and let nature keep our gardens alive during July," she said.

Source: Adelaide Now

The Brisbane Times reports that the residents in Brisbane will have to ensure their rainwater tank is plumbed into their laundry and toilet to be eligible to receive the $850 water tank rebate.

"Lord Mayor Campbell Newman said the change was needed because the rebate program would not conserve the city's water supplies unless people started using rainwater inside their homes."

Brisbane has been struggling to keep water consumption down to 140 L per person and although this change to the rebate rules may hurt the hip pocket, it will go a long way to helping Brisbane reach the consumption target.

i just came across this new green lifestyle magazine, G Mag Australia."G Magazine provides practical, evidence-based solutions to living a more environmentally friendly lifestyle," says Wilson da Silva, Editor-in-Chief of G. "It will be a trusted and respected guide to the green consumer landscape."

"It's hard to find accurate and reliable information on how to be green, and this is something G Magazine will do best," says Sara Phillips, Editor of G and winner of a 2006 Reuters/World Conservation Union Award for Excellence in Environmental Reporting. "We want to make it a magazine readers trust, with sustainable solutions and examples based on the best evidence. No hype, just the facts."

Get your subscription to G Mag at iSubscribe.

Tone Wheeler, the architect of the latest and environmentally greatest Big Brother house has claimed it to be the fist house in Queensland to use grey water legally.

The Queensland government has granted BB approval to conduct testing of a grey water treatment plant on site at the House, which will see grey water run into toilets for flushing and filtered water used to irrigate gardens.

Read more about one of the greenest houses on the Big Brother website news section.

A study by Marsden Jacobs Associates for the Australian Conservation Foundation, has shown that rainwater tanks are one of the most cost-effective solution to the water crisis facing Melbourne, Sydney and South-East Queensland.

The report found the widespread installation of rainwater tanks in Australian capital cities would mean big savings in water, energy and money.

The study found:

Rainwater tanks are a more cost effective option than dams and desalination plants.

Rainwater tanks are five times more energy efficient than desalination plants and twice as energy efficient as the proposed Traveston dam, per megalitre of water produced.

If governments deployed rainwater tanks to 5 per cent of households each year in Sydney and South-East Queensland, dams and desalination plants planned for 2010 could be delayed past 2026 (Sydney) and 2019 (SEQ).

The majority of Australian houses are suitable for a rainwater tank instillation. In Sydney, 65 per cent (or 1.1 million houses), in South East Queensland 73 per cent (or 900 000 houses) and in Melbourne 72 per cent of houses have potential for the instillation of a rainwater tank.

“While 38 per cent of households in Adelaide have rainwater tanks, fewer than 6 per cent of the houses in Melbourne, Sydney, South-East Queensland and Perth do,” said ACF’s urban water campaigner Kate Noble.

“Rainwater tanks collect and store water far more efficiently than dams, especially in times of drought. As the climate changes we should be installing tanks to take advantage of the rain that does fall on our rooftops.

“If governments systematically installed rainwater tanks in Australia’s major cities, we would secure as much water as the planned Kurnell desalination plant in Sydney, the Tugan desalination plant on the Gold Coast and the stage one of the unpopular Traveston Dam proposed for Queensland’s Mary River,” Ms Noble said.

The Australian reports:

"TODAY, Brisbane and southeast Queensland residents will be asked to reduce water use to 140 litres a person a day, following a fall in storage to 20 per cent of capacity. That will be about half the recent personal water use by Australians."

Check out the full article.