The fact that the article mentions 'turning off the tape when brushing your teeth'...... I have never left the tap running while brushing my teeth in my entire life
I remember in the 90s in school in qld there was a healthy Harold like campaign about water conservation and a bunch of adults would whinge when their kids were telling them they took too long in the shower etc
I think lawns are nonsense in a country prone to drought. We should use groundcovers that suit our climate. Also I just hate mowing. Although in areas that use recycled water for gardens I think it’s still ok?
Absolutely. There's an abundance of groundcover options available.
They could use said recycled water on gardens thoughtfully grown to support native bird populations instead of wasting it on grass.
Water cannot be used to clean hard surfaces, including driveways, paths, concrete, tiles and timber decking.
There are a few exceptions, in which case a high-pressure water cleaning device or hand-held hose or bucket must be used:
after emergencies like accidents, fires, or health and safety hazards
where surfaces have been stained – and then only once a season
Thought I was about to self-flagellate but no, the only time I've used water to clean my deck is when it got absolutely covered in dust during a renovation.
Water restrictions aren’t too bad. If you’ve lived in Melbs and are over about 35 you probably grew up with them. The biggest rules are always garden related and there’s a lot more homes now that don’t even have a garden
Also back then recycled water wasn’t as common. Anyone in a newer area will have a purple tap and presumably there will be no restrictions on using that for gardening and car washing.
Having recycled water feels strangely luxurious cause you never have to worry about if someone's in the shower, kinda like being in a hotel. And no, there are no restrictions of its use.
Yep and not a lot of people had water tanks either, and those seem to be the default for any new townhouse build. We have one that’s linked to the toilets
We did. We had two, but that was in Adelaide. My mum had a very specific, water saving way, of washing the clothes. It was so complicated that none of use were ever allowed to use the laundry.
Excellent. I can go back to telling people it's about water conservation, rather than admit that I am, in fact, incredibly lazy and wasn't going to wash it anyway.
Haha I was going to mention the bucket underneath you to pour on the garden. I don’t mind 3-4 min showers (I still have them unless I’m washing my hair) but it’s cruel to have a quick and uncomfortable shower because you’re dodging a bucket.
Yeah the car wash thing was a big one, you could use a bucket as I recall but not a hose or running water, and you couldn’t wash it while it was parked on concrete if you could help it, it was meant to be done on grass. Fines if you used the hose on concrete or the footpaths or if you watered the garden on days over a certain temp or a day that didn’t correspond with your house number
I still have the flashbacks of the 2 minute showers that bearly washed my hair let alone my body. Granted that was back in South Australia in the late 90s
I’m younger than that and lived under water restrictions. They send out hour glassses to put in the shower and you’re supposed to get out when the sand runs out. Key childhood memory.
The majority of Vic's population only affects Melbourne's catchments. Our supply can go dry independently of farming areas and vice versa. Arguments about data centres vs residents need to be in the context of Melbourne's supply and not be diluted by the enormous use by agriculture elsewhere.
Did you get the Vic breakdown from the ABS? I'm finding those numbers hard to tally, but I get more like 20% after excluding use for electricity, gas and waste services. Still, agricultulture uses the most by far.
Keep in mind that the agricultural consumption is indirectly affected by the metro population needing to be fed.
It's impossible to recycle all of the water, and the amount of water each uses makes "only a dozen" a massive problem. Meanwhile we're probably going to have to go back to 3 minute showers. But at least you got to generate an ugly big booba anime lady or an email you were too lazy to write lol
No, the dozen is not a massive problem. They're all in Melbourne where non-residential consumption is only 23% of total consumption and has been trending DOWN per capita. Those showers and toilets really are the biggest problem.
Go look at the Melbourne water outlook instead of repeating info about US datacentres.
If that’s the case they should stop feeding water into that system otherwise people are going to think they have recycled and don’t need to worry about the restrictions.
They want the supply charges though. I’m paying for two supply lines despite both being non-recycled water and they have no intention of supplying recycled water.
Do you get charged the recycled water rate or the full rate? I know there are instances where they charge for Class C but provide Class A because of how the network runs.
It’s difficult as a woman to keep them under 5 mins if you’re conditioning your hair, conditioner has to stay in for 2 minutes minimum usually. I remember as a teen doing lots of turning the water on and off, now I just let it soak in while I wash my body
I remember when we came over for Christmas when I was younger and my grandparents had a special way of watering their lawn, namely they would fill up plastic bottles, put a drip lid on the end, and stuck it in the ground near the plants.
I was growing up during the drought in the early 2000s and I still haven't completely kicked the "if its yellow let it mellow" habit from the water restriction days!!
Whoever is writing these should really take a closer look at the impact of data centres and other big insustrial users. What cuts to consumption will they be required to make?
None, because big business are always last to be held accountable, if at all, regardless of the proportion of the issue they represent relative to the general population. It’s sickening.
I’m absolutely not on their “side”, but I do wonder what the consequences would be if they were required to do so. We’ve seen when AWS and CloudFare went down recently, half of Australia’s digital infrastructure couldn’t function including banking and government websites.
There’s an issue with data centres use of fresh water and they should be legally required to invest in R&D to solve that + it’s messed up how concentrated the internet is in the hands of a few companies! Are any politicians even addressing this?
There have been discussions between data centres and water utilities to use recycled water (treated sewage) instead of drinking water in the near future
It’s ‘drinking water’ quality equivalent instead of drinking water, so adequately treated recycled water would be good too. This is for cooling towers built for cooling the computers.
You should take a closer look. 23% of Melbourne's water usage is non-residential, while 65% is residential. How much do you expect to squeeze out of that 23%?
I'd be curious to know the actual water consumption of data centres. My understanding is that the water is cycled, not consumed directly. Seen conflicting sources online about how much water they actually consume.
Here is the best video on the topic imo.
Yes there are conflicting views on how the water usage is measured but it’s the Ai companies who are deliberately being misleading by not including the water used to train the models as part of the overall usage amount. https://youtu.be/H_c6MWk7PQc?si=BIAuSp4toB6KZzXs
How do you propose a data centre reduces its water usage? Do we ask the 1000s of businesses housed in each datacentre to shutdown servers? Doesn't work like that.
Prior to datacentres, individual businesses housed their servers within their own premises and cooled using AC units. Would that be a better option?
BTW, Data centres in Australia typically have closed loop cooling to minimise water loss.
The problem is that we have a very finite amount of water and power available in Victoria. We don't have enough dams / flowing rivers and we ain't building enough power to also Sistine both population and data center growth along with industry power demands (we do a lot of manufacturing in vic).
Close loop or not, a lot of the workloads powering growth of dc's are not the usual e-commerce/lob apps. Its all ai related with far greater power and cooling demands.
The amount of dc's popping up in the western suburbs is short of jaw dropping
I highly doubt that there's extensive deployment of AI in Melbourne data centres. With our power, water and land prices it's simply an uneconomical place to do it.
I highly doubt that there's extensive deployment of AI in Melbourne data centres. With our power, water and land prices it's simply an uneconomical place to do it.
The individual businesses that self host rarely have an AC for their gear, so yes but that's not the load going into DCs these days. I've installed gear in Equinox ME1 and it was not closed loop.
Ahh a lot of younger people are going to be in for a shock.
There are a lot of people who learned from the last one. We've got a water tank for the garden and new places have the purple taps which use recycled water.
My water company likes to claim they’re doing all these “upgrades” when all they’re doing is adding capacity for apartments and trying to sugar coat that you’re subsidising some property developer
Can't speak for your company because I don't know it andI am as cynical as anyone but the reality is that large capacity projects such as in the CBD over recent years typically would have huge savings as well. There have been multiple large main replacements over the decade or so since last heavy restrictions - I think people would be very surprised how "leaky" some of the older large infrastructure was / is.
Water utilities are under pressure to deliver new housing needs as the population grows, and to address aging infrastructures such as aging pipelines/pumping stations, etc. There ARE lots of major projects going on so that the existing infrastructures are maintained whilst to meet shortage of housing needs.
Me and some workmates have been discussing this at smoko for about 4-5 yrs. Here's an example of the nonsense going on in Bendigo, and our results from our self proclaimed enlightened counsel (conclusions often affected from juggling a pastie)
TL:DR - reactionary approach to a predictable cluster-fuck.
The Epsom water treatment & storage plant (a $82.6 million contract near Bendigo) is being designed, the design-to-fully-operation goal is aiming for 2028. This is bloomin fast, projects of this scale/budget usually take 4 years (Boneo plant took 7 years - approx$130-150 million).
If there's any hiccups on the way there's gonna be major EPA fines for license breaches (>$500k/spill) and, o fcourse, mandatory Stage 4 water restrictions are pretty much 99.5% predicited (unless it pissses down).
They've kicked-off electrical infrastructure design works and are preping the site for construction early 2026.
I expect zero fireworks or ribbon cutting LUL This thing is already pear-shaped.
I'm not sure what you getting at here.
Epsom is Bendigo's 'water reclamation plant' which is what Coliban Water call their wastewater treatment plant.
It's been receiving progressive upgrades for the past few years. The recycled water and biosolids plants most recently.
The announcement of further upgrades might be recent but these upgrades have been in planning for a number of years already.
Its recycled water output is fairly modest - about 30% of the treated flow I think? Don't think upping that is going to have much impact on drought preparedness.
Desal plant is only connected to the metro network and has to be ordered from in advance - guaranteed they’ll bump the next order up but that’s going to take time. We’d already be on restrictions if we didnt have it.
As far as I know the desal plant has been used a few times, the most recent one started in July 2025, below are AL search results:
First Use (2017): After initial commissioning in late 2012, it was first ordered to supply water in March 2017 to combat drought conditions, delivering water via Cardinia Reservoir.
Subsequent Orders (2020-2022): It was activated again, with orders placed in 2020-21 and again in March 2022 for 10 months to boost supply during dry periods.
Current Activation (2025): A major order of 50 gigalitres (GL) was placed in April 2025, with delivery commencing July 2025, making it a key part of the supply for the year.
Desal water can be provided into Gippsland, and as far away as Geelong using the MGP.
They have 50 GL of water from the plant this year, and the next order is due to be made in April 26.
Interesting that based on the image they show Gippsland Water itself looks ok, it’s South Gippsland that looks more challenged. And it can’t support Central Highlands which seems to be the one of most concern.
The Wonthaggi desal plant? That is the metro desal plant and is only connected to Cardinia which supports the metro network only, not the regional networks. I think Gippsland Water has a recycled water facility, but not a desal.
Was a bit of a White Elephant when it was first built, as the drought eased right as it came online. Cue endless criticism of the government of the day. But no one could predict when the droughts would break. It's essential infrastructure.
Hand-held hoses must be fitted with a trigger nozzle and free from leaks.
Hand-held hoses, buckets or watering cans can be used at any time to water household and commercial gardens and lawns, as well as public gardens, lawns and playing spaces.
The news story says the state’s water storage levels have dropped to 61 percent. But my “Melbourne’s Water Storages” iPhone app says it’s at 75.1 percent. I guess the app must be wrong.
I still think we should never have gotten rid of them in the first place, just eased off a lot....... the number of people I see running sprinklers in the middle of the day........
Dams take a long time to implement are environmentally damaging and in a drought the dams are empty. We don't need new dams we need a resilient solution. Reduce losses, manage consumption, increase recycling and use supplies that are not reliant on an unpredictable climate (e.g. desal)
Meh. My partner and I I use 151l per day together. We shower every third day, recycle our shower water into toilet and use rain water for garden. Our bills are about $50 per quarter. It can be done
For one, it only has a certain capacity. It certainly helps, but doesn't solve all the problems. Secondly, the state is more than just Melbourne. The desal plant helps with Melbourne and some regional towns (Wonthaggi i think?), but not all towns.
First Use (2017): After initial commissioning in late 2012, it was first ordered to supply water in March 2017 to combat drought conditions, delivering water via Cardinia Reservoir.
Subsequent Orders (2020-2022): It was activated again, with orders placed in 2020-21 and again in March 2022 for 10 months to boost supply during dry periods.
Current Activation (2025): A major order of 50 gigalitres (GL) was placed in April 2025, with delivery commencing July 2025, making it a key part of the supply for the year.
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Our population has changed a lot since the early 2000s , a lot of education and advertising is going to be needed to enforce restrictions
The fact that the article mentions 'turning off the tape when brushing your teeth'...... I have never left the tap running while brushing my teeth in my entire life
I don't understand why you would even need to. Turn on: wet toothbrush. Turn off. Brush teeth for 2 mins. Turn on: wash toothbrush.
Why would you just leave it running for 2 minutes for literally no reason.
I remember in the 90s in school in qld there was a healthy Harold like campaign about water conservation and a bunch of adults would whinge when their kids were telling them they took too long in the shower etc
I believe it was all over Australia.
I don't even do step one, you have saliva glands for a reason.
I only use water when washing my brush. Somehow I can generate enough saliva to not need water to start brushing.
Neither had I, but then again my Mum would constantly remind us not to.
People need to stop washing their fucking driveways.
Seriously never understood why people do this. Next door neighbour complained endlessly about water bills and did a drive way wash often.
Also lawn. Lawn is horrid when it comes to water usage.
Also stop watering their damn lawn. That shit will grow back. It's part of summer here than the lawn does back. Stop wasting resources.
I think lawns are nonsense in a country prone to drought. We should use groundcovers that suit our climate. Also I just hate mowing. Although in areas that use recycled water for gardens I think it’s still ok?
Absolutely. There's an abundance of groundcover options available. They could use said recycled water on gardens thoughtfully grown to support native bird populations instead of wasting it on grass.
We should focus a lot more on native plants and some imported shit that people use because they want to believe they are nobilty.
This should just be a year round rule
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How the fuck is that racist?
its a wog thing
Calling it a wog thing is what’s racist.
Thanks for the reminder Professor Malaka.
Stai zitto, testa di cazzo
What do you think swearing at me in Italian is going to achieve?
Tu e la tua razza vaffanculo :P
That’s an extreme reaction don’t you think?
I still see people in my area hosing down thier driveways instead of sweeping/leaf-blowing. Reported one of them once.
Reported them? I didn't realise it was illegal wow
I don't do it myself but just never thought of it
https://www.melbournewater.com.au/learn-about/saving-water/permanent-water-saving-rules-and-target-150
Water cannot be used to clean hard surfaces, including driveways, paths, concrete, tiles and timber decking. There are a few exceptions, in which case a high-pressure water cleaning device or hand-held hose or bucket must be used:
after emergencies like accidents, fires, or health and safety hazards
where surfaces have been stained – and then only once a season
during construction or renovations.
Wow thank you for sharing! I'm going to have. A proper read of the website when I get home tonight
Phew, I just pressure washed my driveway for the first time in 5 years. I hope that counts as once a season.
Thought I was about to self-flagellate but no, the only time I've used water to clean my deck is when it got absolutely covered in dust during a renovation.
I think a lot of people have seen pressure washing stuff and come away with the idea that hosing down your driveway will garner similar results
Water restrictions aren’t too bad. If you’ve lived in Melbs and are over about 35 you probably grew up with them. The biggest rules are always garden related and there’s a lot more homes now that don’t even have a garden
Also back then recycled water wasn’t as common. Anyone in a newer area will have a purple tap and presumably there will be no restrictions on using that for gardening and car washing.
Having recycled water feels strangely luxurious cause you never have to worry about if someone's in the shower, kinda like being in a hotel. And no, there are no restrictions of its use.
It does! Washed my car last night with zero guilt whatsoever 😆
Yep and not a lot of people had water tanks either, and those seem to be the default for any new townhouse build. We have one that’s linked to the toilets
We did. We had two, but that was in Adelaide. My mum had a very specific, water saving way, of washing the clothes. It was so complicated that none of use were ever allowed to use the laundry.
The millennium drought went from 1996, through to 2010. In 2010 we went from drought conditions to floods. That was only 15 years ago.
It is incredible to think that we had 14 years of drought.
Got under 30% if I recall at one point, no washing the car, certaint days on the garden.
Excellent. I can go back to telling people it's about water conservation, rather than admit that I am, in fact, incredibly lazy and wasn't going to wash it anyway.
3 minute showers was the worst bit.
At least finding a good 3 minute song was a fun challenge.
Need to finish before the guitar solo outro!
I was a kid back then and remember showering with the little timer and a bucket underneath me.
Haha I was going to mention the bucket underneath you to pour on the garden. I don’t mind 3-4 min showers (I still have them unless I’m washing my hair) but it’s cruel to have a quick and uncomfortable shower because you’re dodging a bucket.
Yeah the car wash thing was a big one, you could use a bucket as I recall but not a hose or running water, and you couldn’t wash it while it was parked on concrete if you could help it, it was meant to be done on grass. Fines if you used the hose on concrete or the footpaths or if you watered the garden on days over a certain temp or a day that didn’t correspond with your house number
I recall that in some areas, possibly in NSW, they were down to one bucket of water per person per day.
I still have the flashbacks of the 2 minute showers that bearly washed my hair let alone my body. Granted that was back in South Australia in the late 90s
I’m younger than that and lived under water restrictions. They send out hour glassses to put in the shower and you’re supposed to get out when the sand runs out. Key childhood memory.
My 87 year old aunt still has one in her shower!
Fair point, but mind that there are a lot more homes now than back then....
And a lot more data centres.
Sure, but 65% of Melbourne's water consumption is residential, so stop trying to convince yourself that your actions don't matter.
15% residential and business use Victoria wide.
The majority of Vic's population only affects Melbourne's catchments. Our supply can go dry independently of farming areas and vice versa. Arguments about data centres vs residents need to be in the context of Melbourne's supply and not be diluted by the enormous use by agriculture elsewhere.
Did you get the Vic breakdown from the ABS? I'm finding those numbers hard to tally, but I get more like 20% after excluding use for electricity, gas and waste services. Still, agricultulture uses the most by far.
Keep in mind that the agricultural consumption is indirectly affected by the metro population needing to be fed.
and also... data centres are important. it is what the internet runs on (and our economy by extension)
There's maybe a dozen that's not the problem and they recycle their water. Move on to the next bogeyman.
It's impossible to recycle all of the water, and the amount of water each uses makes "only a dozen" a massive problem. Meanwhile we're probably going to have to go back to 3 minute showers. But at least you got to generate an ugly big booba anime lady or an email you were too lazy to write lol
No, the dozen is not a massive problem. They're all in Melbourne where non-residential consumption is only 23% of total consumption and has been trending DOWN per capita. Those showers and toilets really are the biggest problem.
Go look at the Melbourne water outlook instead of repeating info about US datacentres.
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In some areas the purple tap doesn’t contain recycled water and is just town water.
Until this thread I had never heard of the purple tap. We do flush our toilets with tank water which is rainwater
Neither had I.
It’s mostly a thing in new build areas.
If that’s the case they should stop feeding water into that system otherwise people are going to think they have recycled and don’t need to worry about the restrictions.
They want the supply charges though. I’m paying for two supply lines despite both being non-recycled water and they have no intention of supplying recycled water.
Ugh, that’s frustrating!
Yep, even got charge 10k for the privilege of the recycled water lines too!
Do you get charged the recycled water rate or the full rate? I know there are instances where they charge for Class C but provide Class A because of how the network runs.
Full rate, although I haven’t had a bill in almost 12 months.
GWW? Checks out 😆
Privatisation gone swimmingly!
I use over 150 litres per person but don't water a garden. No clue how. Other than shower everyday for 10mins.
Don’t shower for 10 minutes? We have 3 adults and a garden, always under 150 per day.
It’s difficult as a woman to keep them under 5 mins if you’re conditioning your hair, conditioner has to stay in for 2 minutes minimum usually. I remember as a teen doing lots of turning the water on and off, now I just let it soak in while I wash my body
A 5 minute shower is about 75 litres.
I remember when we came over for Christmas when I was younger and my grandparents had a special way of watering their lawn, namely they would fill up plastic bottles, put a drip lid on the end, and stuck it in the ground near the plants.
I was growing up during the drought in the early 2000s and I still haven't completely kicked the "if its yellow let it mellow" habit from the water restriction days!!
Yeah, but how are the huge houses and gardens in Toorak and Templestowe going to manage.
By digging private bores, same as they did 20 years ago.
If I look hard enough, I might be able to find the 4-minute shower timer the water company sent out 20 years ago.
Mine still works! I want another one and am yet to find a reliable replacement.
Was yours digital? Mine was a tiny hourglass haha
I remember this… but recall the suction cup being pretty crappy and falling off
Yes! The suction cup was terrible. It did survive all of those drops though.
We all got phones now. It'll be an app for sure :p
I hate what has happened to the ABC with their click bait headlines and news.com style articles.
If you read the statement it actually says “Water restrictions are not expected for Greater Melbourne in 2026 with water storages currently at 75% capacity but trending 12% lower than this time last year”. Quite the opposite of that sensationalised headline. Here’s the link https://www.water.vic.gov.au/about-us/news/news-stories/outlook-shows-why-saving-water-is-crucial-for-2026-and-beyond
It says urban in the title not Melbourne. It’s more self induced clickbait for people who forget there’s more than one place in Victoria.
Saw this linked on Facebook then made the mistake of looking at the comments....
Typical "I've had plenty ty of rain" and " this is jacinta allens fault"
I think I really need to get away from fb
FB never had anything positive to say about any situation.
Plus, much like Reddit and virtually all corners of the internet now, it's likely to be 50% bots at this point.
Dead Internet theory in full effect.
I miss the days when FB was used to keep in contact with friends and family, especially when living overseas.
The lack of a dislike button doesn't help. Every opinion is popular and special.
Surely it’s Dan Andrews fault 🙉
Jacinta Allen is getting on the waters, clearly. Mainlaining the H20
People blame her for decisions made before she was even premier
It’s entry-level social media. So it attracts boomers and the barely literate.
Over the last few years I've noticed millennials & gen Z have all but abandoned Facebook. It really is now just a cesspit of boomers and cookers.
Regularly blocking news pages that pop up has been great for my mental health
To be blunt, yes you do.
Fix the pot holes!
Whoever is writing these should really take a closer look at the impact of data centres and other big insustrial users. What cuts to consumption will they be required to make?
None, because big business are always last to be held accountable, if at all, regardless of the proportion of the issue they represent relative to the general population. It’s sickening.
Plus there’s politicians pockets to be lined
I’m absolutely not on their “side”, but I do wonder what the consequences would be if they were required to do so. We’ve seen when AWS and CloudFare went down recently, half of Australia’s digital infrastructure couldn’t function including banking and government websites.
There’s an issue with data centres use of fresh water and they should be legally required to invest in R&D to solve that + it’s messed up how concentrated the internet is in the hands of a few companies! Are any politicians even addressing this?
Nope, they're too busy approving new ones without closed loop.
I mean because if you want less concentration, you need more data centres.
There have been discussions between data centres and water utilities to use recycled water (treated sewage) instead of drinking water in the near future
Why do they even need drinking water?
It’s ‘drinking water’ quality equivalent instead of drinking water, so adequately treated recycled water would be good too. This is for cooling towers built for cooling the computers.
you need clean/pure fresh water for cooling tech and machinery, salt and pollutants will wreck shit
Presumably that's what you get by default from the utility. Not everything is a conspiracy.
You should take a closer look. 23% of Melbourne's water usage is non-residential, while 65% is residential. How much do you expect to squeeze out of that 23%?
I'd be curious to know the actual water consumption of data centres. My understanding is that the water is cycled, not consumed directly. Seen conflicting sources online about how much water they actually consume.
Here is the best video on the topic imo. Yes there are conflicting views on how the water usage is measured but it’s the Ai companies who are deliberately being misleading by not including the water used to train the models as part of the overall usage amount. https://youtu.be/H_c6MWk7PQc?si=BIAuSp4toB6KZzXs
Thanks for sharing.
How do you propose a data centre reduces its water usage? Do we ask the 1000s of businesses housed in each datacentre to shutdown servers? Doesn't work like that.
Prior to datacentres, individual businesses housed their servers within their own premises and cooled using AC units. Would that be a better option?
BTW, Data centres in Australia typically have closed loop cooling to minimise water loss.
The Geelong Refinery uses a lot of cooling similar to data centres.
They switched the cooling over to recycled water during the millennium drought.
The problem is that we have a very finite amount of water and power available in Victoria. We don't have enough dams / flowing rivers and we ain't building enough power to also Sistine both population and data center growth along with industry power demands (we do a lot of manufacturing in vic).
Close loop or not, a lot of the workloads powering growth of dc's are not the usual e-commerce/lob apps. Its all ai related with far greater power and cooling demands.
The amount of dc's popping up in the western suburbs is short of jaw dropping
I highly doubt that there's extensive deployment of AI in Melbourne data centres. With our power, water and land prices it's simply an uneconomical place to do it.
I highly doubt that there's extensive deployment of AI in Melbourne data centres. With our power, water and land prices it's simply an uneconomical place to do it.
The individual businesses that self host rarely have an AC for their gear, so yes but that's not the load going into DCs these days. I've installed gear in Equinox ME1 and it was not closed loop.
Ahh a lot of younger people are going to be in for a shock.
There are a lot of people who learned from the last one. We've got a water tank for the garden and new places have the purple taps which use recycled water.
Wait till the fields turn brown and the trees all lose their leaves then the smoke rises
And how much infrastructure have we built since adding an extra million people to the state?
The exact answer we've added no more water infrastructure but heaps more homes/people
My water company likes to claim they’re doing all these “upgrades” when all they’re doing is adding capacity for apartments and trying to sugar coat that you’re subsidising some property developer
Can't speak for your company because I don't know it andI am as cynical as anyone but the reality is that large capacity projects such as in the CBD over recent years typically would have huge savings as well. There have been multiple large main replacements over the decade or so since last heavy restrictions - I think people would be very surprised how "leaky" some of the older large infrastructure was / is.
It's cheaper and easier to add capacity for one large apartment building than a massive suburb of detached houses.
Water utilities are under pressure to deliver new housing needs as the population grows, and to address aging infrastructures such as aging pipelines/pumping stations, etc. There ARE lots of major projects going on so that the existing infrastructures are maintained whilst to meet shortage of housing needs.
We aren’t keeping up with the population increases
We added a tunnel only some of us will you but we’ll all be paying for m, for the next two generations.
Me and some workmates have been discussing this at smoko for about 4-5 yrs. Here's an example of the nonsense going on in Bendigo, and our results from our self proclaimed enlightened counsel (conclusions often affected from juggling a pastie)
TL:DR - reactionary approach to a predictable cluster-fuck.
The Epsom water treatment & storage plant (a $82.6 million contract near Bendigo) is being designed, the design-to-fully-operation goal is aiming for 2028. This is bloomin fast, projects of this scale/budget usually take 4 years (Boneo plant took 7 years - approx$130-150 million). If there's any hiccups on the way there's gonna be major EPA fines for license breaches (>$500k/spill) and, o fcourse, mandatory Stage 4 water restrictions are pretty much 99.5% predicited (unless it pissses down). They've kicked-off electrical infrastructure design works and are preping the site for construction early 2026.
I expect zero fireworks or ribbon cutting LUL This thing is already pear-shaped.
I'm not sure what you getting at here. Epsom is Bendigo's 'water reclamation plant' which is what Coliban Water call their wastewater treatment plant. It's been receiving progressive upgrades for the past few years. The recycled water and biosolids plants most recently. The announcement of further upgrades might be recent but these upgrades have been in planning for a number of years already.
Its recycled water output is fairly modest - about 30% of the treated flow I think? Don't think upping that is going to have much impact on drought preparedness.
What happened with the desalination plant?
From what I read its sounds like the desal plant in the only reason is the reason we aren’t already in water restrictions
Yeah people like to bitch about the money that went into it, but it's my understanding that it's quietly been doing its thing pretty effectively.
Desal plant is only connected to the metro network and has to be ordered from in advance - guaranteed they’ll bump the next order up but that’s going to take time. We’d already be on restrictions if we didnt have it.
As far as I know the desal plant has been used a few times, the most recent one started in July 2025, below are AL search results:
First Use (2017): After initial commissioning in late 2012, it was first ordered to supply water in March 2017 to combat drought conditions, delivering water via Cardinia Reservoir.
Subsequent Orders (2020-2022): It was activated again, with orders placed in 2020-21 and again in March 2022 for 10 months to boost supply during dry periods.
Current Activation (2025): A major order of 50 gigalitres (GL) was placed in April 2025, with delivery commencing July 2025, making it a key part of the supply for the year.
Desal water can be provided into Gippsland, and as far away as Geelong using the MGP. They have 50 GL of water from the plant this year, and the next order is due to be made in April 26.
Interesting that based on the image they show Gippsland Water itself looks ok, it’s South Gippsland that looks more challenged. And it can’t support Central Highlands which seems to be the one of most concern.
Pretty sure the the Gippsland desal plant is connected to main Vic water grid.
The Wonthaggi desal plant? That is the metro desal plant and is only connected to Cardinia which supports the metro network only, not the regional networks. I think Gippsland Water has a recycled water facility, but not a desal.
Was a bit of a White Elephant when it was first built, as the drought eased right as it came online. Cue endless criticism of the government of the day. But no one could predict when the droughts would break. It's essential infrastructure.
I am sure the cost of building in back then is a fraction of what it would today as well
My household is currently using 105L per person per day, according to my latest bill. Already doing my bit.
Shit's about to go down.
Swing your partner round and round etc. etc,
Its really not unless you really love watering your garden or washing your car.
https://www.water.vic.gov.au/for-households/water-restrictions-and-rules
Hand-held hoses must be fitted with a trigger nozzle and free from leaks. Hand-held hoses, buckets or watering cans can be used at any time to water household and commercial gardens and lawns, as well as public gardens, lawns and playing spaces.
Doesn't seem restictiv
That’s the permanent water saving rules.
Stage 1 is water systems to be used on alternate days
link
The news story says the state’s water storage levels have dropped to 61 percent. But my “Melbourne’s Water Storages” iPhone app says it’s at 75.1 percent. I guess the app must be wrong.
Melbourne water is only responsible for Melbourne. The state is bigger than just the city.
The Melb Water website says 75.1% so the app figure looks to be the same to my early morning eyes.
And I'd assume the state level takes into account all the various water storage levels - regional and Melbourne?
Sounds like some of the regional ones are quite a bit lower than Melb. So the 61% probably makes sense once it all gets calculated.
There are 16 water utilities around Victoria, each using their own storages. DEECA centralises all this data here: https://data.water.vic.gov.au/
“Desal was a waste of money” people have gone in to hiding
If you overlay 2024 on 2025 you can see from the two lines that 2025 has been much better than 2024.
2026 still has done catching up to do.
Almost like genAI uses a metric fuck-tonne of water, combined with our recent weather patterns.
No shit we’re looking down the barrel of water restrictions again
Almost like you're not aware that Melbourne non residential water consumption is only 23% and has been growing slower than residential consumption.
There are plenty of easy to digest stats in the 2026 Melbourne water outlook.
Do we have substantial AI infrastructure in Victoria?
A quick google search says we sure do!
Click bait headline. No restrictions expected unless situation worsens. Yeah no shit.
But the situation will worsen if the weather simply continues. At this rate Melbourne's got 4 years of water left.
They are not as bad as they were back in the day
I still think we should never have gotten rid of them in the first place, just eased off a lot....... the number of people I see running sprinklers in the middle of the day........
Maybe get rid of the data centres that use gigalitres of water
We never really cared much about the 150 (I think?) target, but we always end up below it. Not sure what people are doing to far exceed it…
How? Feels like it's been raining non stop
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Has it actually been the wettest year ever? Most of this increased demand is from industry, not population
I hope you forgot the /s
Dams take a long time to implement are environmentally damaging and in a drought the dams are empty. We don't need new dams we need a resilient solution. Reduce losses, manage consumption, increase recycling and use supplies that are not reliant on an unpredictable climate (e.g. desal)
Meh. My partner and I I use 151l per day together. We shower every third day, recycle our shower water into toilet and use rain water for garden. Our bills are about $50 per quarter. It can be done
Shower every third day!? OMG
My thoughts exactly. Lol.
This is actually very common. Or at least that's what my nose tells me when I take PT.
Do you have custom plumbing to recycle shower water? How much did it cost?
Just buckets in the shower. Oh wow I’ve been downvoted :(.
Shower every third day?!! Urgh
I'll pay the extra $10 for you to shower more often
Showering every third day is not a flex. That’s putrid.
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Did you read the article?
I thought we had a desalination plant. If so why isn’t that enough
For one, it only has a certain capacity. It certainly helps, but doesn't solve all the problems. Secondly, the state is more than just Melbourne. The desal plant helps with Melbourne and some regional towns (Wonthaggi i think?), but not all towns.
The desal plant has been ordered 50Gl in 2025:
First Use (2017): After initial commissioning in late 2012, it was first ordered to supply water in March 2017 to combat drought conditions, delivering water via Cardinia Reservoir.
Subsequent Orders (2020-2022): It was activated again, with orders placed in 2020-21 and again in March 2022 for 10 months to boost supply during dry periods.
Current Activation (2025): A major order of 50 gigalitres (GL) was placed in April 2025, with delivery commencing July 2025, making it a key part of the supply for the year.