Water - Daily Photo Theme Day

Water is a precious commodity in a city, state and country where drought is frequent. I live in a city with many waterways, but until the drought broke recently, rain was a rarity over the past few years. Much of Australia is still in drought. Sydney-siders have become much better at using water, and we use far less now (per capita and in total) than we did 20 years ago, even with a much larger population.

I saw this sign on a local road sign pole.

Have a look at what other Daily Photo blogs around the world have to show us about water by clicking this link.

Footbridge across Johnston's Creek Storm Water Channel

The same channel as show yesterday, looking in the opposite direction towards its outlet at Rozelle Bay. This was originally a natural waterway which provided fresh water to the earliest settlers in the area.

I found out at this website, where there are some good historical pictures, that the aqueduct shown yesterday was a sewer aqueduct.

"Before 1890 the watercourses which served to carry stormwaters were almost entirely in their natural state. These were receptacles of the sewerage of the large population and led to health problems for the community. By 1900 numerous stormwater channels had been constructed, causing the mortality rate to be greatly decreased in these constructed drainage areas. The Johnstons Creek trunk drainage system was constructed during the period of 1895 to 1900 by the Public Works Department."

It is listed as a heritage item. Most storm water these days is carried underground, of course (although Sydney gets such huge downpours from time to time that sometimes it just doesn't cope, especially as development becomes more intense and population density increases)

Something you don't see very often in Sydney

Sydney has had water restrictions for some years, due to drought. The government has announced that some restrictions will remain permanently. It is illegal at the moment to have fixed sprinklers watering gardens and lawns, unless you have a source of bore water, which houses in this are of Sydney (Ramsgate, Monterey, Sans Souci) do. They display a sign outside saying so.

I'm off today for a (well-deserved) break for a week in Tasmania. I hope to be able to keep posting, maybe some exotica from The Apple Isle.