Australians, what are your views on water restrictions?

Some people need guidance that's for sure. I was watching a women the other day hosing leaves of the footpath, the last few stubborn leaves must have taken half a swimming pool's worth of water to budge, she could have just picked them up.

I have no problem with water restrictions. They've existed in some way, shape or form long before I was a ratepayer in my local/regional council area. We have water coming out of our ears these days, but sensible heads have ensured it's not squandered, by keeping restrictions in place.

There's a BIG bloody lake ..ARGYLE....sitting in The Kimberly..just evaporating away...5 Times BIGGER THAN Sydney Harbour...just going to waste.....year after year after year......dear oh dear oh dear.... all for the lack of a pipe and a shovel........

I grew up on a farm in northern Victoria. There were 9 of us. We were pretty well self sufficient. We generated our own electricity, slaughtered our own meat, grew our own vegies and fruit, burned mallee roots for cooking,heating and hot water,had our own water supply and we NEVER ran out of water. Our average rainfall was 11 ins/year and all rooves had several tanks to catch every precious drop. I could not, as a child visiting the city relos, understand why there were water restrictions every summer in Melbourne. You would think that the powers that be would have noticed that Melbourne has winter rain and very little of it.You would think there would have been greater steps taken to harvest the natural run off might help, that restrictions would be in place long term until there was a surplus of water and certainly not lifted on the first day of summer. You are quite right, Sheila, very foolhardy.

Hell yes, it very full hardy, just because we have had a fairly decent rain fall, with floods in some area's of Vic does not mean that it wont be a dry very hot summer, or that we will continue to get decent rain fall. Water is an very precious commodity, and being in a rural Victoria area that is the food bowl of Victoria, which produces the fruit etc for supermarkets and SPC/Ardmona. We have been greatly affected by the droughts for over 10 years and then floods last year, I find ridiculous that councils are dropping the water restrictions, especially since some weirs are just little over half full and others such as the Eldon weir is near full to capacity, along with many farm dams. It just seems so stupid we should be on low water restrictions all over Aussie. I am grateful we are no longer on the farm, its pretty hard work having to cart water & feed for stock, and watching stock die from lack of feed or water is sad, thankfully we rarely lost stock due to no food or water, but it very heart breaking to see. What many people don't realize that farmers have to pay for water 100% for their farm, even though they only get half of the water they need, with out the water they can't grow their crops or breed stock for meat. A couple of years ago a friend got only 13% of his water right, but he had to pay for 100%, which causes his milk production to drop and less money per litre. Sadly there has been a number of farmer who killed themselves due to the stress of drought, with mounting bills to pay for stock feed, water, seed for cropping, loss of stock etc and they get little in return. 9 cents a litre for milk at the gate, yet we all pay more than $2 dollars a litre at the supermarket, it seems very unfair.

It's time it was taken much more seriously by our politicians , to much of the Murray water is used upstream, to much wasted by inefficient watering, our de-sal plant is a year behind, but the company responsible was still given $46.000 000 yes, that's right 46 million dollars ,as an incentive !!! for gods sake !! being paid that amount of money for being a year behind.Individual households i believe are doing their best ,but the big water guzzlers just go on guzzling.

Have had water restrictions in Perth and WA for a long time, people adapt, after living on farm for many years water restrictions always applied, we had droughts then, its not a new phenomenon as the loony left try and make out! There are two desalination plants in Perth now to ease the water shortage but water conservation still a very good idea.

Water is one of the most mis-managed commodities in this country.We have restrictions here in Sydney while at the same time burst water mains are seeping water all over the place & no-one seems to care.People turn on sprinklers & go away for the weekend etc.We can fill our swimming pools but can't wash our cars or windows with a hose.We are asked to take 2 minute showers,yet city parks & gardens still have their water fountains & sprinklers going regularly.We have floods and our storage dams never seem to fill.Why is that waste of water not diverted to storage dams somehow?

Didn't I tell you just recently that we should swap kiwis for victorians ! lol Here's more proof...