Question

Is it better to increase the supply of urban water or it better to use demand-side management approaches to solve the urban water crisis in some cities and regional councils in Australia? Discuss for and against.

Answer 1

If one increases the supply of urban water than there is no stopping the demand, consumers will keep on using water incesssantly for their daily needs and won't cut back on their consumption levels as can be seen historically all over the world. Secondly as population goes on increasing, it will be hard to opt for alternative means if one relies too much on water for all their needs.

Thus it will be better to use demand-side management approaches to solve the urban water crisis prevalent in some cities and regional councils in Australia as people will try to consume less water, they will recycle more and it will be beneficial to control all in all the entire process of conservation if people are made aware of the shortages of water. They will reduce reliance on machines which are not efficient in terms of water usage and this will increase innovation as companies will try to address this by coming out with less water consuming machines and water recycling measures. This will indirectly lead to increase in supply of water through conservation measures.