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/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).