A Better Australia Scholarship Winner 2016

The Expert Editor would like to congratulate Nathan Anderson from the University of Notre Dame for winning the A Better Australia Scholarship prize for 2016. We loved his entry because it’s a topical issue which had some great practical ideas. You can read his entry below.

“Healthy Soil, Healthy Australians”

“The health of our soil has far reaching impacts on today’s society. We take the soil for granted, but there is a lot going on under ground. I am studying Biology and Environmental Science so I can help contribute to a greater understanding of the Australian soil ecology. There is still a wealth of untapped, useful information for us to learn from the soil.

My end goal is to help build an Australia that is truly water-wise. I want to study the soil microbiology, so we can better understand their role in the purification of water. My vision is that everyone can use simple, cost effective, natural systems to clean their grey water. If we can re-use our bath and laundry water to safely water our veggie gardens; we can save untold sums of money, improve the quality of life (especially in draught affected rural Australia), reduce fire loads during the summer water restrictions and create a better Australia for everyone.

Rather than transporting the grey water (along with the black water) to sewerage treatment plants, we could process the grey water easily, and safely in our backyards. Currently WA transports 450 million litres of wastewater per day. Imagine if we all removed the water from the shower and laundry from that equation and instead used it to water our yards.”