Editor:
Regarding the new water restrictions, I notice that by Stage 2, permits are not issued for watering newly installed lawns. However, the filling of pools, spas, and fountains is not restricted until Stage 3. How is that in the best public interest?
Lawns may be the most basic of landscaping efforts available, but in a cost-benefit analysis, they give more back than isolated water features. Not only are they a solid mat of vegetation that shades the soil surface, slowing dehydration, but they greatly increase available surface area for the overnight condensation of dew. Pools, spas, and fountains only lose water through evaporation and use. Lawns also consume carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, and weather periods of drought well. Once established, lawns do better with infrequent but deep watering; however, newly installed lawns, whether seed or sod, need water. They certainly deserve priority over the individual use of pools and spas.
Given that we live on the Sunshine Coast, nobody lives more than a 10-minute drive from one the biggest and best swimming pools on the planet. To allocate even a portion of our rapidly dwindling water supply is counter-intuitive. I’m not suggesting a ban on pools, spas or fountains, but greater regulation of them is in order. I suggest they be licensed and regulated through the district. Perhaps they should be metered as a commercial use, or installed with an underground rain catching system that is independent of the municipal water supply.
Regardless, giving pools priority water usage over newly installed lawns reeks of elitism, and does little to address the actual problem.
Michael Bell, Gibsons
