Why save water?

Many people think that Darwin has an endless supply of water, but this is a myth. We are currently using more water than can be captured and supplied in the long term.

We are among the highest water users anywhere in Australia. An average household here uses 400,000 litres of water per year - that's around 1,100 litres of water per household each day. A lot of this water use is unnecessary and can be reduced whilst at the same time maintaining our great lifestyle and saving money on bills!

What about our wet season rains?

Most people believe that our water supply is unlimited because of our wet season rains, this is not the case.  Yes, there is plenty of water that falls as rain in the wet season, but only a small portion of this rain actually falls in the Darwin River Dam catchment - our primary water supply. 

Evaporation, climate change and city development

Two-thirds of the drop in Darwin River Dam levels each year is due to evaporation. As our City develops and more people and businesses choose to live, work and invest here, the demand on our water supply increases.  Combine this with high evaporation, which is likely to increase with climate change, and the result is a reduction in water available in future years.

Living Water Smart can help reduce water use to protect this precious water source both now and in the future.

 

Living Water Smart is a Power and Water initiative to help the Darwin region reduce water use. In [...]