When did Australia notice there was a water problem ?

Question

i'm doing a report on australia's water shortage i just cant find when the problem was first noticed.please help and let me know the source thanks

Answer 1

Australia has a naturally dry climate, or atleast most of it does.  Its hard to determine what is really considered drought.

Answer 2

Australia has always had water problems, - it's part of our history.  It's not a matter of when it was first noticed but when something will be finally done about it.  

There have been many droughts in Australian history, isn't it supposed the the driest continent?

Answer 3

After a few years of persistent drought when water supplies could no longer meet demand.  About 5-6 years ago.

Answer 4

I think it would be hard to get an exact date as there have been various water problems and droughts over the years that have probably come good and then more problems have occurred.

It's also a bit like climate change, while some aware people have been talking about it for years, many people not concerned about the environment (including governments) were in denial that it was happening.  

In 2004, experts warned that Sydney and other cities could run dry by 2006. (from the global pulse)

The other thing about water in Australia is that Australia is so big, so just because there were problems in one part of Australia doesn't mean these same  problems occurred everywhere.

Another issue we have is that one water supply,  the Murray-Dowling, flows through 4 states, all having their own jurisdiction over the river.  Problems were definitely noticed in the early 1990's. A body was set up  "called the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, in which the commonwealth and the various riparian states, including Queensland and the tiny Australian Capital Territory (ACT), had equal representation and where decisions were taken by consensus."(from the economist)

Unfortunately the government didn't really think too much about it until it was a bit late in some parts.  Victoria now is very short on water.  It is affecting their farming and agriculture.  I think some parts of South Australia are also having this problem.

Other parts of Australia aren't as badly off -we have had different water retstrictions for a number of years in North Queensland and now the other parts of Australia want our water.  

According to wikipedia some restrictions came into place in 2004 in Goulburn and townsville (nq) since 2006.

I live in Townsville and it seems that we have had low restrictions for many years. These include things like the days you are allowed to water your yard - odd number houses on one day, even numbers the next and the times sprinklers are allowed to be on.  

We have a dam up here and occasionally get a good tropical rainfall.  One problem we did have is our dam wasn't "working" to the extent that it could reach 100% capacity.  I believe this is now rectified and we have had a bit of rain lately.

Townsville is currently on level 2 water restrictions, which implies our dam is below 20%:

http://www.townsville.qld.gov.au/citiwat...

Another interesting thing is that it used to be illegal to use grey water to water your yard (I remember this because my mother always wanted to do this) but now it has become trendy, they are starting to allow it, but you still have to apply.  Maybe they should have thought of these sort of issues a few years before they did.