http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/NSW-Democrats-launch-election-campaign/2007/03/03/1172868803341.html

The NSW Democrats believe in spending money on the "little end of town" to tackle the big issues of energy and water.

Rather than invest millions of taxpayer dollars in building new coal-fired power stations to meet increasing energy demand, Dr Chesterfield-Evans would prefer to encourage individuals to install solar collectors on their roofs by making it economically attractive to do so.

"All you have to do is set the price, you don't have to administer some elaborate scheme," Dr Chesterfield-Evans said.

Such a system would lead to fewer blackouts on the hottest, and sunniest, days when demand was highest due to the diversified generation from so many different areas, he said.

Using the same model of thinking small, the NSW Democrats offer an alternative solution to Sydney's water shortage.

Dr Chesterfield-Evans said funds earmarked for the desalination plant could instead be diverted into modifying individual houses.

"At the moment it's a war between the pro-desalination lobby and the pro-sewage treatment lobby, when you boil that down it's really two corporations, one backed by Labor, one by the Coalition," Dr Chesterfield-Evans said.

"Neither is saying what about the other solution, which is to support the little people's recycling."

Deregulation of the sale of water and restriction of the input of toxins, such as urinal cleaning blocks, into the water supply would also help, he said.

"There's a lack of an overall concept - (the current mentality is to) spend a lot of dollars on the big end of town and hope they'll solve the problem," Dr Chesterfield-Evans said.

I do see a problem here, though. Less than 10% of Australia's water usage is residential.

But not in the cities where the water shortages are. Obviously you can make that argument for Adelaide, but not the other capitals.