Every drop counts: a mission to save water

Australia, the ‘wide-brown land’ home to many natural wonders, but prone to extreme conditions. In a preliminary climate summary for 2025, the Bureau of Meteorology reports that the national average temperature for each month in 2025 was above the 1961-1990 average¹, with South Australia (SA) and Western Australia (WA) both recording their third-warmest years on record. 

Now, chronic water shortages pose a significant challenge to multiple regions, and SA is particularly affected². Last year, the state recorded the lowest area-averaged rainfall since 2019, that’s around 64% below the December average. 

Enter VALAI — trading as Home Efficiency Australia — one of the five recipients of the Help Fund climate-smart innovation grants on a mission to help one million Australian homes unlock their water-saving potential by 2030 with their Water Efficiency Tool, known as ‘WET’.

WET was born in response to the increasingly scarce water supply in the Eyre Peninsula (SA). In a conversation with Jess Taylor, Impact Lead at VALAI, we discovered how the tool is supporting the community and why it’s so important. 

“The Eyre Peninsula is a region that’s really struggling, and has been for a while,” Jess reflects, as she explained how Allys Todd, founder of VALAI embarked to extend their climate-tech support to the region.

“Being a country and a community girt by sea, makes us feel like [water] is endless, abundant... but like everything the earth blesses us with, it’s a finite resource.” She explains, as we discuss the attitudes of people toward water and whether we take it for granted.

For Jess, the decision-support tool represents an opportunity to cultivate a movement, indicating a desire to build a more “reciprocal and intimate relationship with water” amongst communities, where we respect water as a “giver of life”, and recognise our responsibility to preserve it. 

“Up to 50,000 litres of water could be saved per year with fairly simple upgrades” Jess explains, highlighting how the tool is used to help people determine their home’s water-efficiency score, and what upgrades could help reduce their consumption. “When you compound that over a whole street, a whole community, the whole country... [it’s] pretty significant”. 

“The Help Fund has empowered us not only to develop the WET tool but has also enabled the testing of its resonance with a local drought-prone community. This has led to an abundance of valuable insights, learnings, and ideas on how we might amplify our support of local communities around Australia and beyond." Jess shares, reflecting VALAI’s efforts to empower the struggling region to take control of their water use. 

Since launching, community uptake has been strong. Local tradies, media outlets, councils, community groups, and social clubs have rallied behind the program, resharing posts, distributing flyers, and encouraging households to explore WET. 

It’s exactly what’s needed for the Eyre to help build better water saving habits. And now, VALAI’s Home Efficiency Australia looks to build momentum toward expanding their reach beyond the SA coast, to achieve their goal of making action simple, practical and rewarding for all Australians.