The Bermuda Environmental and Sustainability Taskforce has welcomed Government plans to encourage water conservation, but warns the campaign must lead by example.

Government announced its Water Conservation Campaign during Friday's Throne Speech. Over the next Parliamentary Session, it will raise public awareness on the importance of saving water through presentations, campaign literature, and print and electronic media.

The Royal Gazette however – the Island's only daily newspaper – looks unlikely to be included in the campaign. When asked whether Government's ban on advertising in this newspaper was likely to change soon, Premier Ewart Brown said: "I doubt it."

The Throne Speech stated: "The Government is committed towards ensuring the availability of sufficient amounts of drinking water and water for other household uses for the people of Bermuda.

"In this regard, the Government will introduce a comprehensive Water Conservation Campaign to heighten public awareness about the critical importance of water conservation.

"This campaign will involve public presentations, advertising via the print and electronic media, and the production of brochures, banners, leaflets, posters and other campaign literature for Island-wide dissemination."

Government said the campaign would "complement the opening of the new 500,000 gallons per day Tynes Bay Seawater Reverse Osmosis Plant on North Shore".

"The new plant will reduce Bermuda's dependency on rainwater significantly," it said.

Reverse osmosis is a form of water treatment used to process seawater into drinking water and the new $10 million plant will help to make up shortfalls in homes in the central parishes. The Tynes Bay plan, due to open shortly, will also have the capability for upgrades which could double its capacity to a million gallons per day.

Said Robert Horton, Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Works and Engineering: "Water is a precious resource in Bermuda and as such should be conserved.

"The conservation campaign is part of the overall water management strategy for the Island. Happily, there are no problems with the water supply currently. However, the conservation campaign will remind residents of the need to ensure that their water systems are adequately maintained and inform them of ways to save water.

"RBK, a local advertising firm, has been contracted to prepare the public campaign promoting water conservation. The desired outcomes will be accomplished through television and radio commercials, a website on the Government portal and ads in the Bermuda Sun.

"DVDs and information booklets on water conservation will also be distributed throughout the schools. We will also be distributing information to the hotels for guests visiting the Island.

"The information presented will target homeowners informing them about maintaining their water system, methods of saving water in the home, how to calculate water requirements for a home, and tips on maintaining the quality of their water.

"The Tynes Bay Reverse Osmosis Plant is scheduled to produce water by next week with an official opening to follow. The plant will service households generally in the central parishes. The water will be distributed through the piped mains system and the truckers' outlets in Prospect and on North Shore, Devonshire."

BEST chairman Stuart Hayward however, warned the Water Conservation Campaign should not be treated in isolation – that energy conservation must be in tandem.

Mr. Hayward said: "Bermuda has been well served by its rainwater collection systems for hundreds of years and when residents relied only upon rainwater, conservation was a natural pastime.

"To meet the need for additional drinking water, since the early 1980's Government has harvested the fresh and brackish waters from the several large underground water lenses across the Island, which are replenished by rainfall and so are a truly renewable resource.

"It appears that the demand for additional drinking water has now exceeded the capability of the fresh and brackish water lenses to meet demand, especially during severe droughts. In addition to an expanding population, tourists and guest workers are the major per-capita users of water. We are also having to plan for luxury hotel schemes with water and energy-wasting fountains, waterfalls and cascades.

"The use of seawater conversion plants such as at Tynes Bay are energy-intensive and therefore expensive. Their carbon footprint is substantially higher than those plants that convert fresh and brackish water.

"This is where conservation comes in. To minimise the use of the higher energy water conversion plants, local and guest residents must consider how they use their water to see if use could be trimmed without impacting upon their quality of life.

"Government has presented several successful water conservation programmes in the last 30 years so it should not require much more than an update of existing documentation to quickly get this programme into action.

"Most importantly, we should not be approaching the concept of conservation in a silo fashion, acting as though it's important to conserve water but not equally important to conserve energy (turning off lights overnight in Government buildings) or fuel (driving smaller vehicles at lower speeds).

"Wastefulness – whether of water, energy, or exhibited in extravagant tastes in vehicles, entertainment or lifestyle – is the opposite of conservation and ultimately unsustainable.

"It will be counter-productive to resort to wasteful practices in pursuit of conservation goals. The campaign itself must epitomise the message it intends to carry. This seems to be a factor so far missing from the Government's approach to conservation."