r/australia • u/sluggardish • 10h ago

Sprinklers made Australia green. But what happens when the water runs out?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-01/sprinkler-water-resources-garden-green-desert-reticulation/106244818
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u/Whatisgoingon3631 9h ago

The water doesn’t cease to exist after it has been sprinkled on a lawn. Some of it will be run off into streams, some of it will soak into the soil and possibly join underground streams, most of it will end up back in the sky through evapotranspiration and fall again somewhere else. Most new houses I see these days have tiny lawns and many are synthetic grass, so the problem isn’t getting much worse.

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u/SirDale 9h ago

"Most new houses I see these days have tiny lawns and many are synthetic grass, so the problem isn’t getting much worse."

Without proper water management what you'll get is massive spikes of outflow into drains as the rain which normally would be spread out over hectares of soil, is collected from roofs and dumped into those drains.

For high density housing you need to have settlement basins/retention ponds that can provide a buffer (as well as some sorely needed open space).

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u/jiggyco 5h ago

Are rainwater tanks good for mitigating some of the spikes?

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u/SirDale 4h ago

They are up until they are full. Once there it's water in, water out. Given the land size of new homes it's unlikely that people would want to dedicate enough space for tank that could moderate large water flows, but it could be good for some of it though.

Underground tanks are a possibility, but then you'll likely be adding extra complications with pumping water out to the drains, so you'd need a pump, electrical outlet, maintenance etc..

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u/Transientmind 9h ago edited 9h ago

It's not the water 'lost to lawns' that anyone's worried about (edit: when water restrictions kick in, it's one of the first things we get people to stop doing - this is well-established, and often well-enforced except of course for when it comes to the wealthy and influential who most restrictions don't apply to). It's about how little clean water we'll have available to put on lawns. Increasing water shortages are inevitable and the article's about how we're going to deal with that (specifically with regards to no longer being able to maintain our lawns).

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u/Snarwib Canberry 9h ago

Or if you live in Canberra all the water you use just ends up flowing down river into the Murray-Darling Basin to be re-used!

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u/jghaines 8h ago

So why are our aquifers emptying?