Bill Dalton

The time has come, in my humble opinion, for local authorities to demand that new houses have rainwater tanks installed.

All communities face problems with water. Many can simply not get sufficient supplies of good water and others have very real problems getting rid of storm water. Rainwater tanks attached to houses would help solve both those problems.

In terms of supply, rainwater could be stored in the household tanks and even if it was only used for watering the garden or washing the car, it would take the pressure of the reticulated supply.

The benefits to storm water disposal could also be significant. Over 80% of Napier’s storm water is pumped so any help would be welcomed.

Back in the days when all our sections were the good old fashioned quarter acre, we used to cover about 30 to 40% of our land with hard surfaces – house, shed, driveway, and paths – those sorts of things. When it rained much of the water simply soaked into the lawn or the garden.

Now we live on tiny sections with 70 or 80% of the land covered with hard surfaces. There is simply not sufficient uncovered land to allow the water to soak in on our sections and so it pours out into the street and has to be dealt with by the council.

Why don’t we store some of that water in tanks?

There is no problem in the new suburbs like Knightsbridge and Parklands because their drainage is designed to cope – but the water still ends up having to be pumped and why waste it anyway.

The biggest problem lies in suburbs that are heavily infilled – where two or three dwellings now cover what was originally someone’s grassy backyard.

Sooner or later we are going to have to deal with the major storm water problems that many councils face.

Why don’t we start now by insisting all new dwellings include rainwater tanks?

It can’t do any harm.

The most important thing about water is – that when added to a healthy slug of London Hill gin, in a good crystal glass – it produces the most pleasant drink known to man.

But water has other qualities. It is absolutely essential for life as we know it and yet we seem to abuse our water supplies at every turn. We pollute our waterways, we allow contaminants to soak down into the aquifer and most importantly, we allow our waterways to be raped and pillaged by commercial interests.

Why do we do that?

We give commercial interests the right to take enormous amounts of water from our rivers and then complain that the reduced flow means that our fisheries are destroyed. Why don’t we think of these things before we consent to millions of gallons of water being extracted for irrigation.

Surely life’s all about achieving a reasonable balance. And equally surely – in Hawke’s Bay – we have got that balance all wrong. If you don’t believe me, go and asks the residents of Bridge Pa about the fact that they have had no water in their taps in recent weeks. Drive over the bridges in Central Hawke’s Bay and see the pathetic slimy waterways where once we had clean flowing rivers.

We need to address these problems.

We need to establish policies that protect our environment – in particular our water supply.

I would hate it to be said that I am anti commercial interests. In fact I am very much in favour of commercial development in Hawke’s Bay. However, natural resources like water are a finite resource and we need to protect finite resources.

So whose responsibility is it to protect our water supplies? The short answer of course is all of ours but practically the responsibility in Hawke’s Bay is with the Regional Council – and frankly so far – they have let us down.

We all need to care for our waterways and to demand that our council’s do the same – if for no other reason than straight gin knocks me around a bit.

It is estimated that in the last 18 months, the world has lost 40% of its wealth. How the so-called experts arrive at that figure I have no idea.

The starving millions in Africa, South America, India and other deprived areas of the world are in no different position then they were 18 months ago or 5 years ago or 10 years ago. They were on the bones of their bums then and still are today.

So if those huge areas of the world’s population have not seen their net worth reduced and the world has lost 40% of it’s wealth on average, then those of us in the affluent world must have lost a hell of a lot more than 40% of our wealth. I can relate to that!

Our houses have dropped dramatically in value – our equity investments have tanked – our fixed interest investment portfolios have diminished in value and frankly – we are all feeling somewhat battered and bruised.

Sometimes we think: “how could things be worse?”

Well for a start we could be in rural Victoria. We could be in a shelter having lost our homes and several relatives and friends. In fact we could have lost everything.

And the truth is – we haven’t.

My son, who works for the Victorian State Treasury and is on call waiting to head into the affected area, says it is chaotic in rural Victoria. It is a sad sad scene. His girlfriend, a Doctor at the Alfred hospital is working long hours dealing with the burns victims. Who would swap places with her?

My daughter is at the Royal Melbourne hospital. That institution is also seeing the results of these horrific fires.

In Victoria hundreds of people have lost their lives. Thousands more have lost everything they ever owned. The State of Victoria is a ravaged and devastated disaster area.

And we are worried because our assets are worth a little less then they were worth 18 months ago.

Most of us still get three meals a day – we sleep in comfort at night and just occasionally we might have a wee drink or two.

I think people in rural Victoria would think that’s not a bad place to be right now.