What is the overall picture with regards to drinking water in Australia?

Question

I know a lot of gloom and doom people who, as soon as you bring up the topic of Australia, go "Ha! Those poor souls will be out of water pretty soon!"

I just can't imagine that that is entirely true.

I mean, come on, it's a huge country almost the size of the US, with only fraction of the population in it. Surely, there must be enough water there for centuries?

Or am I wrong?

Answer 1

Fairly typical media exaggeration.  It's the only thing they hear so they imagine it applies to the entire continent.  

A few cities were in trouble last year, particularly Brisbane and Toowoomba in Queensland and Goulburn in NSW where population growth has been exceeding supply, because of drought extending over years.  

You can probably check the Brisbane City Council web site for current water use restrictions and dam levels.  As far as I know the usual wet season (November - March) has eased things somewhat.  Restrictions are on garden watering, not drinking or bathroom use.

Most cities in Australia have always restricted water use in gardens to particular hours or days of the week.  This has to do with the capacity of treatment plant almost as much as available storage.  

Many areas of Australia go for months without significant rain, that is normal.  The result is that Australians are builders of big dams.  However in recent years rainfall during the wetter parts of the years has been lower leading to a decline in water storage.  

Australia does not resemble New Zealand, Europe or the USA where climate is more regular.  The climate here is different and can best be described as "variable, mostly dry".

Answer 2

It's the oldest continent over water. Over half is dessert, so the possibility is big enough that they may run out of water.

Franky

Answer 3

The outskirts of this Continent will have no water problems. Another issue is the interior with desertic climate.

In any case the presumptive climate change is bringing surprises to many regions of the maltreated Earth.

Answer 4

haha....well of course we are able to drink water.

well, if you see australia on a map you'll see that we have alot of desert. our enviroment has adapted to not having alot of water, our trees have dry bark and the leaves 'crunch' if you press down on them because they hold very little water. a great deal of the land isn't used as it's too hot and dry and most australians live near the beach. australia has always been a dry country...it isn't something that happened recently.

we have water restrictions on at the moment (we've had them or a very long tme), that means that depending on where you live you have to limit your water usage. the restrictions come in at levels...at the moment i think Victoria is at 3A. so we can only water our gardens every second day (its a rotaion between odd and even houses) between 6-8am and 8-10pm. we can't hose down our driveways or water our lawns and we need a certain type of hose nozzle. most australian houses have a timer in their shower, we try to limit shower time to 5 minutes maximum. my personal favourite restriction is that we are not allowed to wash our cars (we can get them done at a car wash though), its made all these funny slogans pop up around the city, such as "i wish my wife was this dirty" and "water saver" written on dusty cars.

it's no secret that australia is in drought and we started taking notice a bit to late. not to be cliche..but the poor farmers usually have water taken from them to allow the cities to consume it. also last year there was talk of taxing people who have water tanks in their backyard...stupid idea.

so, all in all, yes australia could do with a bit more water but its not that we're gonna die anytime soon.

Answer 5

I'm currently living in Victoria and there are no restrictions on drinking water. You are urged to have short showers, and you can't water the grass, almost can't use a hose at all and in some places can only water the garden at certain times on certain days.

Yes, we have a much smaller population compared to the US, but much of our land is desert. Where it rains and where water is collected is basically where all the people live, and rain is becoming rarer. At last check Melbourne's dams averaged 29.6% full. Rural areas are far worse off, and most farmers are really struggling.

Everyone's trying to be smart, so we should not be out of water for at least a couple of centuries, but it doesn't look like the harsh water restrictions will be taken off any time soon.

Without them this drought would get a lot worst.

Answer 6

I guess I am a bit blasé about it all as we have more than enough where I live.  (which is the tropical part of North Queensland ) I remember it hosed down for a week a couple months back and in the newspaper it said well that's our dam filled for another 3 years.   .. but anyhow we have a dry and a wet season here so we never have to worry although there is still water restrictions in place, eg) water your garden every 2nd day not everyday and try to keep showers down under 3 mins.

SE Qld, NSW and Vic is not so lucky though - glad I'm not there !  

Take a look at http://www.cecaust.com.au/pubs/pdfs/AWP....  a PDF doc, but has a map of Australia and shows the problem areas and explains why .....