Southerners; avert your eyes and block your ears. This morning I awoke to find my boyfriend had left the sprinkler running overnight. In other states, this would generate extreme panic, the wrath of neighbours and possibly legal action. Initially I felt a wave of remorse and guilt; however, as we live in a city without water restrictions, we shrugged our shoulders and continued on with our lives. Eighteen months ago I moved from Brisbane to Darwin as a water conscious, frugal consumer of H20. I dutifully used a water timer while showering. I let my car become stained with dust and caked with mud in the name of water conservation. I even recycled the used water from my washing machine to use on the garden. Yet I am now a shadow of my former self. I have become acclimatised to the Territory’s ways.
In the first few months of living in the Land of No Water Restrictions, I found it hard to get used to the free-and-easy water approach. The habit of turning off the water while brushing your teeth is hard to break after practising it for many years. Once, while swimming at my local pool on a lazy Sunday, I spied a pool attendant casually watering down the cement with a hose. I felt appalled by such blatant waste, and could barely watch the spectacle before my eyes. I had to question his actions.
He merely laughed and continued with his spraying.
“You’re not from here love, are you?” he said. I had to admit, I was not.
I still find myself staring, enchanted by the tick-tick-ticking of the sprinklers as they sweep across lawns in their recurring arc. Often I’ll witness water pooling in gutters and running down streets. It’s amazing to see. A friend described it as ‘water porn’ for us southerners who haven’t become used to the lack of restrictions.
The Top End has two main seasons; the wet and the dry. The general feeling among locals is that there’s no real need to restrict water use as its going to rain for months on end during the wet.
But then there is the dry season. We’ve just come to the end of the dry and until Monday night hadn’t seen rain for six months.
Territorians use about three times the national average of water. Does it really balance out? Such overt over usage still doesn’t sit well with me. I am going to try to be more thoughtful with my water use in the future. Some habits really are hard to break.
