Do rainwater tanks herald a cultural change in household water use?

Over the past decade, there has been rapid installation of domestic rainwater tanks in many Australian cities in response to drought, and facilitated by subsidies and development regulations. Tanks have been portrayed as a challenge to the dominance of ‘big water’ and a means of elevating routine interactions with water to a practical consciousness that can stimulate lasting changes in the way that water is consumed. Telephone surveys and focus groups were used to identify the ways that households that have acquired tanks, either by choice or through development conditions, interact with their tank water. Meaning was attributed to tank water in at least three distinct ways that highlight the lack of maturity of domestic rainwater tanks as an acceptable technology. Some saw the water as a personal supply to safeguard their lifestyle against restrictions. Others understood their tanks as a personal contribution to the communal environment by reducing dependence on mains water supply. The third group regarded the tank as an extension of the water supply infrastructure. The existence of mandatory connections from tanks to internal infrastructure, such as toilet and laundry facilities, correlated strongly with the likelihood that tank water was not seen as a personal resource. Tanks perpetuate the distinction between basic water supplies and luxury water that was established during water restrictions under drought conditions.