The Croydon Conservation Society (CCS), which has existed for over 40 years, is Maroondah’s pre-eminent environmental society. Tonight the group held its Annual General Meeting, which featured a policy officer from the Department of Humans Services’ water program.

With diminishing water supplies a number of alternatives, such as stormwater, grey water and bore water, have been proposed to augment current supplies, although the potential health implications are not readily understood. The Department of Human Services is currently preparing some guidelines to aid industry and householders in understanding the suitability of these water alternatives for various applications, such as drinking water, washing and gardening.

Unfortunately significant policy gaps currently exist in being able to satisfactorily regulate and monitor the usage of water alternatives. This problem is further compounded by the lack of a central regulator that approves water saving technology.

In particular the use of recycled water within industry remains largely unexplored and there is currently no requirement for new developments to incorporate alternative water supplies within their proposals. While Maroondah has very few remaining large-scale greenfield sites, there is the need for the state government to investigate water conservation in areas undergoing urban consolidation such as Ringwood and Croydon.

Water conservation is just one of the many issues pursued by the Croydon Conservation Society. For further information on the Croydon Cosnervation Society please home.vicnet.net.au/~croycons.