By any account April was an extraordinary month in our Indian summer - hotter than March for the first time since records began. It was dry, too, with only 33 millimetres of rain, a quarter the monthly average.

Rain fell on just eight days; most of it uselessly went down the drains into the sea.

Dam levels have dipped below 40 per cent capacity for the first time, and there are fears Sydney's weather patterns will have far-reaching consequences for our water, food and gardens.

People cannot control the weather, but there are things that are within their control.

Sydney groans under the weight of its rapidly growing population; public transport is chaotic, unreliable and sometimes unsafe; roads are congested; impossible demands cause energy, land, housing and water shortages; and five decades of official complacency on planning has left the Carr Government struggling to meet community expectations.

Clearly, Sydney cannot continue living, consuming and travelling in the same greedy, unsustainable way.

There is anger over falling standards, and symptoms of strain are everywhere.

The train system lost 6 million trips last year as commuters abandoned the network. Work-related public transport use is down to 10.6 per cent of all journeys. In a time of drought 11 per cent of water is lost through leaky pipes. Every day an extra 40 homes are built and another 110 people arrive in Sydney. Car use will increase by nearly one-third by 2020, if present trends continue, and the Government is spending only 5 per cent of what it has been told by its own experts is needed to stop the rail system collapsing. On a Friday night a pedestrian can beat a bus from Central Station to Circular Quay.

The State Government had hoped its Metropolitan Strategy would guide the city's growth. Instead, the strategy has become a lightning rod for all sorts of dissidents, including developers, transport specialists, housing experts, welfare activists, environmentalists and architects, all yearning for a new direction.

One of those championing the blueprint, the sustainability commissioner Peter Newman, has argued for more medium-density housing to pay for better services. He has pleaded for a decade of train line construction, a series of light rail extensions, including a link into the CBD, and smarter housing and energy choices.

"Heavy rail can carry 50,000 people per hour, 20 times the capacity of a roadway," said Professor Newman, whose critical views were influential in the Government's decision last month to shelve the M4 East road extension.

"This explains why most big cities have a rail system at their base. The 200,000 people who come into Sydney by train each working day would need 65 freeway lanes and 782 hectares of car parks if they travelled by car."

On weekdays Sydney's 4.1 million people each make an average of 3.78 trips - and travel about 15 per cent further each year in their cars, mainly because they live further and further from their jobs, and because we are increasingly choosing schools far away from our homes.

This need to travel greater distances means that despite radically cleaner fuel and better vehicle technology, Sydney's smog is worsening. And when the traditional afternoon breezes do not come, that is a painfully obvious sight.

At the same time, public transport use has plummeted. Fifty years ago half of all trips were by train; now only 10.6 per cent of weekday trips to work are made on public transport.

Yet as Sydneysiders flee trains and buses, elsewhere public transport is being embraced. Londoners, for instance, make 34 per cent of their trips on buses and trains compared with 28.4 per cent a decade ago, as a result of far-sighted government policies to cap vehicle use.

While Sydney's population rose by 540,000 over this same period, only 69,000 weekday passengers joined the ranks of public transport users over the decade.

According to last week's state budget papers, there was a 3 per cent slump in public transport use in 2003-04 as commuters voted with their feet in response to appalling on-time running and shoddy services .

Not surprisingly, public transport's decline is counterbalanced by growth in car ownership and rising traffic volumes on the city's packed toll roads. Last year, for instance, 315,645 new vehicles were registered in NSW (a 14.5 per cent increase on 1997), two-thirds of them in Sydney.

Many of them were parked alongside other vehicles in the driveways of homes in the city's new suburbs, often deprived of realistic transport alternatives.

With the transport system unravelling everywhere, projections on other vital fronts are further cause for pessimism. Every day an extra 40 homes are built and another 110 people arrive in Sydney, meaning more demands on roads, trains, parks, water and food.

For another example of crisis, the permanent Friday night traffic jam allows a pedestrian to walk from Central station to Circular Quay faster than someone riding a bus down George Street.

A feasibility study on one attempt to fix that problem, the CBD light rail extension, was finished in 1997, only to be trumped by a further examination after the Olympics - and yet another analysis last year, announced with much fanfare by the Planning Minister, Craig Knowles.

But it sits unseen somewhere in the bureaucracy, while the operators of the existing line warn they will soon have to close their operations because light rail is failing to attract downtown passengers.

Over his decade in office the Premier, Bob Carr, has often said his proudest achievements were the gazetting of national parks and forests, but issues such as air pollution, water and transport continue to dog the Government.

Sometimes it seems the right hand is not in touch with the left.

Last year the Government scrapped trains into the centre of Newcastle, but then identified the same region as a future growth centre; Sydneysiders have been denied one-ticket access to trains, buses and ferries for years; train services have been cut in the past year, adding to car usage; the rail line to the north-western suburbs, where 70,000 new homes will be built in the next 25 years, remains just an announcement; the line between Chatswood and Parramatta has been truncated with costs ballooning; the still-growing northern beaches remains a public transport wasteland, and the eastern suburbs rail extension is in limbo even though car ownership there is relatively low.

Many of Sydney's problems stem from the long-neglected transport system. On present indications they will only worsen.

Population About 100 new residents a day are arriving in Sydney, a trend set to continue for the next 25 years. By 2012, for the first time in the city's history, there will be more people aged over 65 than under 15. The ageing of the population puts pressure on services and on the way homes are designed. More elderly-friendly homes need to be built.

The Government has determined that 70 per cent of the new arrivals will be accommodated in existing suburbs. But household sizes are shrinking, falling in the past 25 years from 2.9 to 2.7 people, placing an enormous burden on the stock of new dwellings.

Homes Land shortages, property speculation and population rises have put home ownership out of reach for many Sydneysiders. A yearly household income of about $80,000 - 70 per cent above the median income - is needed to buy an average $370,000 home in western Sydney. Property costs play a big role in the retention of skilled and experienced workers. A police sergeant starts on a basic salary of $67,000, while a seasoned teacher earns about $65,000.

The Government says affordability will improve as more homes are built, with a greater supply of homes limiting price rises over time. But property developers say levies of more than $50,000 on many new land areas constitute up to 15 per cent of the price - and are passed on to buyers.

New land Last year only 4500 lots were released for sale, despite an underlying demand of 10,000 blocks a year, further inflating house prices. The Government belatedly unveiled a major land release strategy, but sceptics say it could be seven years until the first lots are ready. It has ring-fenced new release areas, with 160,000 homes for the north-west, near Rouse Hill, and the south-west, near Bringelly. It has promised no more greenfield sites, or new suburbs, will be developed, to curb urban sprawl and its damaging environmental and economic consequences.

New towns will be modelled on old-fashioned villages, with shops on high streets and medium-density apartment developments located near transport links. Building heights will cascade down to typical single dwellings on the fringes. The new developments have to cut energy demand, while the Government has pledged to install services and public transport before the first home owners arrive.

Old land As many as 500,000 new homes will be needed by 2030 in existing suburbs. Unit developments will need to be concentrated around train stations and main roads to avoid traffic chaos. Redefining the way major roads operate is crucial if 70 per cent of Sydney's new residents are to be squeezed into already established communities.

Businesses also need to be restricted to regional centres, and tired suburbs need a makeover. Changing Parramatta and Canterbury roads and parts of the Hume Highway from traffic-clogged arteries into mixed residential and business areas is vital to provide affordable homes close to public transport and jobs.

The area between the CBD and the airport can accommodate the central city's expanding business and resident population if developed well, while the so-called Global Arc between North Sydney and North Ryde needs better transport if it is to remain Australia's home to high-tech industries.

Jobs and main centres Sydney's jobs are widely dispersed, contributing to sprawl and transport disarray. Just a quarter of jobs are in main centres like Parramatta, North Sydney and the CBD, and that proportion is falling, leading to more congestion.

An extra 600,000 jobs are expected by 2030, which need to be in the regional centres that have good services and transport connections. The city centre needs another 2 million square metres of office space in the next six years to house white-collar office workers. That is the equivalent of four Parramatta CBDs. Analysts believe 17 new shopping centres are needed to serve Sydney's growing population.

Public transport More than $1 billion is being spent to untangle the city's maze of intersecting lines, mainly to improve the number of trains that arrive on time. On one day last year the number of on-time trains fell to zero; the rate is rarely above 60 per cent.

The Government's solution has been a classic goal-shifting exercise.

Its new timetable, to be introduced in September, will make journeys longer and extend on-time benchmarks.

Capital spending is only 5 per cent of what the Government's own rail expert, Ron Christie, said four years ago was needed over 15 years to avoid a system meltdown. Patronage has fallen more than 5 per cent on some lines, even though the population is rising by almost 1 per cent a year. No new lines are under way to expand the system, and the Chatswood to Epping link is an inferior version of the circuit to Parramatta first envisaged.

The expansion of bus priority and transit lanes - which are rarely policed to flush out disobedient motorists and ensure clear public transport journeys - is behind schedule, and a private-sector bus overhaul is delayed.

Road congestion Vehicles have travelled 25 per cent further over the past decade, with a jump of 15 per cent in the past 12 months alone. This has been pushed by an expanding road network, with motorists undeterred by a profusion of new tolls. The Roads and Traffic Authority says trip times have in fact improved slightly in the past five years, but the peak hour is expanding in the morning and in the afternoon.

The national cost of road congestion, in terms of wasted time, fuel, air pollution and stress, is tipped to rise to $8.8 billion a year by 2015.

Freight Truck volumes will nearly triple in the next 15 years even if, as planned, rail takes 40 per cent of container freight. Little wonder, then, that residents near main roads, particularly around Port Botany, are concerned. But with train lines in a poor state there is little incentive for freight companies to shift to rail.

Air pollution While Sydney's air quality has improved in some respects, now meeting four of six national goals, its photochemical smog, or ozone, continually breaches the Australian standard. Ozone, a toxin, is formed when vehicular gases react with sunlight, and poses significant risks for eyes and the respiratory system. Yet car use is expected to increase by nearly a third by 2020.

The Government has stopped monitoring air toxins, and stations capable of reading air standards have been cut by a quarter because of budget restrictions. Last year the Government scrapped its gas-fuelled bus program, and carbon dioxide emissions from cars are forecast to rise 72 per cent during the next 15 years.

Water Last week Sydney's dam levels fell below 40 per cent for the first time, despite 18 months of forced restrictions that cut consumption by 10 per cent, or 63 billion litres.

While per-capita use has recently declined, overall consumption has tripled since 1950, even though the population has only doubled.

Nearly 11 per cent of piped water is lost through leaks.

The Government is pushing ahead with a contentious desalination proposal but is less than enthusiastic about other measures - higher prices, further restrictions, another dam, and recycling stormwater and effluent - to reduce the problem. New homes have to reduce water use by 40 per cent, but debate continues over extending that to apartments and existing homes. Energy Each year Sydney uses 2.2 per cent more electricity than the year before. Peak demand times are forecast to rise by 2.9 per cent a year as use of air-conditioning grows. The Government plans to upgrade coal-fired power plants, build another one and scope four gas-fired stations to meet demand. State-owned buildings are only compelled to buy 6 per cent of their power from renewable energy sources.

Apart from the Building Sustainability Index requirements for new homes to cut energy use by 25 per cent, there are few suggestions on curbing use or increasing prices.

Airport Immune from the city's planning laws, airport operators are set to unleash an incredible array of developments, from shopping centres to 12-storey car parks, hotels and office towers, all certain to worsen vehicle congestion. Flights are set to triple by 2025 to almost 70 million a year, meaning more aircraft noise for residents of suburbs under flight paths.

Open space and agriculture Parks and open space are scarce in the city's west compared with other areas. That is even when the planned 5500-hectare Western Sydney Parklands is taken into account. With increased density across the city, parks and reserves will become more contentious.

Planned new suburbs on the fringes will subsume agricultural land, with some farmers and academics fearing threats to food supply - notably leafy greens, mushrooms and other perishable vegetables. The Government is promising a plan to protect agriculture in the Sydney Basin.

Governance and money With 38 councils, a State Government and the Federal Government, Sydney is one of the most governed cities in the world. But there is more: the Redfern-Waterloo Authority, the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, the Growth Centres Commission for new suburbs, and probably an authority for redeveloping existing areas such as Parramatta Road.

State agencies are trampling over councils to get things done. But whether they have the funding and ability to succeed, and can live down poor precedents like Pyrmont, remains to be seen. With the Federal Government almost invisible in funding the big cities, the state and local governments are left to carry the can.

The state's reticence in paying for services has created opportunities for private companies in roads, tunnels, schools and jails, but trains and other services have yet to prove viable - economically, politically, or both.