The point has been reached where it would be timely to reconsider the water services supplied to dwellings in Australian cities. It would also be timely to reconsider the ways in which waste-management services are provided. The situation facing all cities in Australia is that the water used to maintain their sewerage systems now accounts for almost half the water consumed inside the dwelling. This is putting the cart before the horse. The failure to reconsider the present water-supply and waste-management systems is leading to a moral panic in desperate searches for ‘new’ sources of water. All the options for these ‘new’ sources of water are expensive and environmentally damaging. The cities would be better served if more attention was paid first to ways of reshaping the demand for potable water and secondly reconsidering the ways in which wastes are managed.

Chadwick had, through his work on the Poor Law Commission, insisted on evidence in challenging the conventional wisdom of his time. His empirical research and that of others was based on the assumption that there was an inexhaustible supply of water. It was also based on the understanding that households consumed small volumes of water for all their wants. Nor did he or any of his colleagues understand that the great increases in the urban populations, partly as a result of the effectiveness of his reforms of sanitation, would lead to the burgeoning cities that followed.