A similar approach to the water supplied to new and existing industrial and commercial undertakings would also reduce the demand on potable water supplies and lead to similar economies in the water-supply, sewerage and stormwater-management systems.

Households, industry, commerce and public facilities would use significantly less potable water, which in turn would mean that the construction of new storage and large-scale treatment plants could be delayed, possibly indefinitely. There would be less need for high-volume reticulation of water-supply systems or for sewerage system and treatment plants. A major benefit would be that households and industrial and commercial undertakings would become more responsible for managing their own affairs.

An additional benefit would be that the stormwater runoff problem would be reduced, which in turn would reduce the pollution load in the rivers, harbours and bays on which Australian cities are built. The water-supply system would also be less vulnerable to attack or other disruption.

The reduced stormwater runoff could also be captured for treatment and recycling for industrial use, as well as for irrigation of public parks and gardens. It could also be used to maintain the environmental flows in rivers and other water bodies. Capturing and treating the reduced stormwater runoff would lead to reduction in the environmental stresses currently experienced by coastal and river waters into which untreated stormwater currently drains.

The nature of the water-supply services would change from one focused on large-scale catchment management to a much more localised set of catchments operated in a quasi-cascade form. Using the water resources on each block for the developments on them would not only ensure that residents and businesses became more aware of, and responsible for, their own supply as much as possible, it would also ensure that the provision of local water services for parks and public gardens made better use of the local drainage flows, including stormwater runoff. In this way, the present problem of the pollution of the cities’ bays, rivers and harbours would be greatly reduced.