‘drink sewage if you want to do your bit for the environment.’

That’s what I woke up to this morning.

I like to wake up to the radio so I set my stereo to come on automatically fifteen minutes before I get up. There are probably many psychological theories about people who like to wake up to the sound of politicians sparring with Nicky Campbell or John Humphreys but I just like to give the impression that I know what’s going on in the world. I find that coming out with some random piece of government policy leads people to believe you are more knowledgeable than you really are.

Anyway, this morning I woke up to the above. A shocking way to start the day. It turns out, however that they’re not suggesting sticking a long straw into the sewers and sucking away at raw sewage (presumably as reassuring for you as it was for me to learn) Apparently with our lack of rain and lowering of water tables around the country we are in real danger of water shortages.

The solution is something that is already happening in countries such as Australia – we cut out the middle-man. Now, I haven’t done Geography since I was sixteen but I remember the water cycle diagram that we learned in great detail. Rather than our used water being cleaned up and sent into rivers, then into the ocean, then being evaporated, then forming clouds, then coming down as precipitation, then making its way into reservoirs, then being used by us – we should treat it more than usual and pump it back into the reservoirs.

Of course one other solution would be to make better use of the water we have already, fix up the leaks and learn that our natural resources are valuable – not expendable.