greens act for national water efficiency plan

In the Senate the Australian Greens will move to introduce national mandatory water efficiency standards for residential and commercial buildings after the federal election.

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown will announce the new plan to help Australian cities plan for and cope with a water-restricted future at the sustainable 60L Building in Melbourne today with Victorian Senatec andidate Dr. Richard Di Natale.

"Despite many Australians' hard work reducing their water use, Australia still has the highest per capita water-use in the world," said SenatorBrown.

"With climate change we'll face a hotter drier future and we need a national plan to cope with the water crisis in our cities.

Greens Victorian Senate candidate Richard Di Natale said the hard work by householders to conserve water needed to be matched with better government regulation.

"Everyone who's lugged a bucket from the shower to their garden knows how stupid it is that still today new buildings are going up without basic water efficiency measures," said Dr. Di Natale.

"That's particularly important in commercial and industrial buildings where initial design makes a huge difference.

"100,000 litres per person of fresh water a year is too much. With more Greens in the Senate, we'll push for a better national system to conserve water."

The Greens new plan includes:
* Mandatory water efficiency standards for all new residential and industrial or commercial developments, including basic minimum water sensitive design features such rainwater capture, water efficient showerheads and a second pipe network for non-potable water
* Incentives and tariffs for developers to encourage better water sensitive design
* Increasing the ability of local councils to get funding for local public stormwater harvesting projects.