03 August 2007

Western Australian Premier,The Hon.Alan Carpenter MLA, today made the following statement relating to Water Corporation activities:

Premier Alan Carpenter has today launched a new initiative designed to help Western Australian householders reduce their water use and save money.

From this week, Water Corporation accounts will include extra information to better equip householders to use water more efficiently and meet the climate change challenge.

"Declining rainfall and a drying climate in WA means the provision of a sustainable and climate independent water supply is becoming more and more expensive," Mr Carpenter said.

"This means that the cost of water will continue to rise.

"We need to ensure people have the information and opportunity to use their water more efficiently and cut household costs at the same time.

"These new water accounts will provide that information and complement the State Government's highly successful Waterwise rebate program."

Water accounts will now include a water use comparison graph* so householders can compare their current water use to previous years and to the average water use in their own suburb.

"There will also be details on Waterwise tips, water meter readings, daily average use and water use prices for the year ahead," the Premier said.

Mr Carpenter said WA was recognised as the nation's leader in water resource management.

"We were the first State in the nation to build a desalination plant. Other States are now following our lead and the Kwinana desalination plant is attracting people from all over the world," he said.

"We also have a diverse range of strategies in place to secure WA's future water supply, including a second desalination plant, dramatically increasing waterrecycling and maintaining and encouraging water trading.

"We have also had a great response from the WA community to our push to use water more efficiently.

"In the past five years, through a range of conservation measures, including the two-day sprinkler roster and the Waterwise rebate program, the WA community has saved about 45 billion litres of water annually - the same amount produced each year by the Kwinana desalination plant.

"And a recent Australian Bureau of Statistics report in relation to water and energy use in Perth detailed dramatic increases in the number of Perth households installing dual flush toilets (36 per cent in 1992 increasing to 84 per cent in2006); water efficient shower heads (21 per cent in 1992 to 51 per cent in 2006);and front loading washing machines (25 per cent in 2006 - almost double the 14 per cent of 2003 and more than triple the seven per cent of 1992).

"This combined effort has seen Perth become the only major capital city in Australia without total sprinkler bans through summer - despite our driest year on record last year.

"However, we can't be complacent."

In recognition of this, the State Government has put a strong focus on a range of initiatives designed to reduce water costs including:

• extending the Waterwise rebate program with $18 million over the next two years;
• introducing State-wide restrictions on the use of bore watering systems;
• introducing the 'Five Star Plus' building initiative which will see new building standards requiring all new homes to have water and energy saving devices, which have the potential to nearly halve household water and energy bills; and
• setting a target of reducing residential water use from the current average of 106 kilolitres per person per year to less than 100 kilolitres per person per year.

* Only houses where sufficient data is available (ie at least 300 houses in the suburb) will receive a 'suburb' comparison on their account. Suburbs that fall outside this criteria will receive all other information with the exception of the suburb graph.