Mental Meanderings

Evil Trids and Water in Australia

Ok, so I promised Kåre Enga in Montana that I'd talk about Australia's drought and how it effects the country and perhaps more specifically me. But then today an evil trid laid down what to me turns into a challenge. He boldly claimed that I probably wouldn't write blog entries about him. "I AM SAFE!" he so proudly proclaims and so just to prove him particularly wrong I'm going to dedicate my entire blog to him, tomorrow. *grins wickedly* That will be a LOT of fun.

Meanwhile, as promised, water and the lack there of in Australia.

Actually the metropolitan regions of Australia don't tend to have much of an issue with drought and many citizens remain blithely unaware of the way it grips our country. For some strange reason I'm hyper aware of water and the impact our usage here has on other parts of this country.

We have particularly hot summers with very little rain (normally none) and winters that are extremely mild with some rain but in later years a lot less than normal. This tends to lead to water restrictions. Here in Perth the dams that sustain the cities water supplies are low. They were low, less than 30% at the end of winter and have only been getting lower through a hot, dry summer.

In a way I've been thankful that our summer has turned more tropical in recent years. It means we've been blessed with occasionally summer showers, humid, muggy, overcast weather that sometimes drenched the earth but quickly evaporated into clear blue skys again. As a human it's uncomfortable but for our water supply it must provide a little blessed releif.

We have restricted watering days. We're allowed to water our gardens only twice a week and I tend to not water my lawns at all. The majority of lawns are brown, covered in brittle, dry grass and bindi prickles. There are pockets throughout the suburbs of homes with pristine emerald lawns and more often than not they're accompanied by the tell tale signs of overwatering trailing rivers down the street into the storm drains.

The fact is that here other than water restrictions like those the lack of water barely impacts. For the most part it's completely ignored by some and others just don't care or really don't understand the true situation. I know it's only in recent years that I've come to understand. As a child it was certainly nothing I ever concerned myself with when I danced in the sprinklers or took long showers.

Further inland however they face the reality of drought every single day. The further from the coast one goes the browner, goldener the land becomes. Most of the inner regions of Australia are for the most part unpopulated but there are the ranches much like I suppose are found scattered across the US. Cattle and sheep ranches, and various farms.

Anyway, there in the back of beyond, the bush, live the really hardy Australians. These people are the true Australian's. We have multicultural Australia on the coasts but the people who really created this land, the timeless ones that hold it together live in the center. Aboriginies living side by side, working side by side with the white interlopers. *chuckles* The land is their mistress and somehow they pull from it more than any newcomer could ever imagine actually thrives there.

There they depend on the simple things that sustain life. Water, and the lack of, play vital parts in the lives of the people who make their livelihood this way. Some live from rain to rain and it can be years between both. Of course the news that I think I mentioned that sparked the interest off in the first place is that they had a decent rain.

I'm not sure exactly how long it had been but many of the ranchers and farmers had been dependant on government support to tide them over because there just wasn't enough water to sustain the flocks/herds/crops they would normally cultivate to support their pocket communities. Out there they don't own a single house but are small communities. A single ranch/farm could span kilometres and are run by families. It takes a lot to shelter and feed small towns worth of people. It takes a lot to sustain the produce they supply.

In a polar experience then most other industries however, when there are droughts the price of meat and wool etc actually drops or maintains. When you would think price would rise because the production vs. demand isn't there it doesn't. The quality is lower because animals and crops are under nourished and with the animals particularly many are getting sold off early because the ranchers can't afford to maintain a larger herds.

*chuckles* Ok, I'm rambling, obviously the issues that face real Australian's and our primary industries is something I can get passionate about. I used to dream of living a life of a rancher but of course I'd never be able to withstand the heat. lol

Meanwhile, the trials and tribulations they face and the tragedies they triumph over make me aware of the part my family play even so far removed. Water is a vital life force that sustains the planet and all life upon it. Sure, the world is covered primarily in water but most of it is inconsumable in it's current form. The destruction humankind has already rent in the worlds sea and sky is creating more and more problems that might, if not reversed, lead to an unsustainable environment.

As temperatures around the world rise with global warming the pockets of fresh water disappait or run into the ocean and become salinated. Eventually there will be nothing but salt flooding the land and drought completing it. Like the barren sands of a tropical island surrounded by sea.

"Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink." - Samuel Taylor Coleridge