Water in Melbourne

This is my town! Melbourne Australia. For those living outside Australia, Melbourne is the second largest capital city in Australia, and is often called a garden city because it has many beautiful parks in and around the city. We are a homestay family and have many international students particularly from Asia come and stay with us. They often come with expectations of very hot dry weather and wide open spaces but here in Melbourne, its a bit different. Our streets are more likely to be tree lined and maybe a bit dry.
Australia is a bit like the US or Canada in that it is a very big country and as such the climate varies very much from one end of the country to the other. Melbourne is at the very south of the mainland and so our climate tends to be quite temperate. Having said this at the moment we are coming into the 8th year of a very persistant drought and are having to cope with water restrictions. We are only able to water our gardens twice a week in the morning between 6am and 8am. on our allocated watering days. Why am i talking about this. Well i suppose because its pretty much all about global warming. What we are putting into our planet is definitely coming back to bite us on the preverbial....! Consequently down at the bottom of the planet here, we arent getting the rain which we used to. The drought has made many people aware of their environment so probably isnt a totally bad thing, however more needs to be done to preserve the water resources we have and to stop wastage. Most people, especially those with gardens, have put rain water tanks into their gardens or are using grey (recycled) water to water their lawns, but things like permaculture waterwise gardening need to be seriously considered by everyone not just households. My answere to drought and global warming.........plant more trees please, and grow your own vegies! Get your friends involved, join a group, get people in your street together and start a food co-op share produce and swap things all this makes a difference!
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