Features
How Indigenous communities are reducing water demand
In northern Australia, many remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are struggling to obtain first-world utility standards, such as 24/7 access to safe drinking water.
Griffith University’s Dr Cara Beal, in partnership with the Queensland state government and regional service providers, set out to tackle the unsustainably high levels of water use in remote Indigenous communities through The Remote and Isolated Community Essential Services (RICES) project.
“A critical pathway in improving the resilience and sustainability of water and water-related energy is to understand what is being used, why it’s being used, and the cultural and social drivers behind that use,” she says.
Beal and her team installed smart water and energy meters in four remote communities—two in the Torres Straits, one in mainland Queensland, and one in outback Central Australia—to understand community consumption and raise awareness within the communities to drive behavioural changes.
26/11/19
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Author
Elle Hardy
