FACT/POLEMIC: Water usage in Australia

Cubic metres of water used per person per year, 1999

1. USA 1870
2. Canada 1600
3. Italy 980
4. Australia 840
5. Japan 720

"Australia's semi-arid interior means that it is the driest [inhabited] continent and the limited availability of water has greatly shaped Australian development. It may be surprising then that in terms of water consumption per person Australia rates fourth highest among the selected countries. (...) In 1996, 70% of Australia's water use was in agriculture, and that share was increasing compared with industrial and household use. The typical Australian household used 270 litres per day, of which about half went on gardening and a quarter on flushing toilets." (Tiffen and Gittens, pp. 168-169)

Surprising only if you don't know that the average Australian is a moron. The wastage in the world's second-driest continent is astonishing. Apart from the massive water usage for wholly unsuitable agricultural industries such as growing rice, every individual Australian has absolutely no idea about conserving water. When you come down here for a visit, you'll see people cleaning leaves off the pavements with hoses, people leaving taps running, ten thousand uncovered private evaporation ponds swimming pools, people putting wholly unsuitable, European, water-thirsty plants in their gardens (to make them look more like English gardens, in yet another example of Australian sycophancy).... and then they wonder about ever-worsening water shortages. But then again, the average Australian couldn't explain the concept of cause and effect if you hit them in the face and their nose started bleeding.