Water Future in Australia
Water stimulates our enjoyments of life as well as being the most essential element for our life and for all living creatures, plant or animal.
It is not unlimited a resource but exists in nature as a recycling medium, bringing life to the earth through rain and reabsorption again into the atmosphere before being purified and falling once again as rain on our planet. Nature’s cyclic system has four main processes of evaporation, condensation, precipitation and finally collection before the cycle repeats itself.
The extent of Australian brown landscapes and semi arid regions does not allow the rainfall we require for all our purposes. Productivity from the land is confined to particular regions that can better support our agricultural industries and farms.
We would like to have much greater rainfall and wider distribution of it throughout or continent. However, although we have made the adjustments necessary to support a nation of approx. 21 million people, with sufficient primary produce to satisfy our needs and offer export resources, we can no longer progress beyond the present point of development …not until water is more abundant and accessible for our use.
The water that is available to us through catchment areas, dams and storage of rainwater is becoming more restricted every year.
Without increased rainfall we turn to underground resources in artesian basins, and fresh groundwater natural reservoirs.
We are slowly developing desalination plants so we can draw upon our oceans.
We are trying to overcome the encroaching salinity that is emerging as a threat to our soil in many areas.
We are encouraging domestic rainwater tanks to ease the burden upon urban schemes but as a supplement only.
Recycling water once used by domestic populations is becoming a necessity if we are to satisfy the needs of both industry and the public requirements.
Conserving the use of water in households and in industry has become an issue over recent years and has necessitated restriction programmes on watering home gardens.
We are wanting more water and more rain and yet on the conservation side, trying to institute methods that will save the general consumption of water in the community. However, in spite of many minor changes, there remain other vexing questions–
Why do we not restrict the building and use of private swimming pools- limit the number of lawns – confine sports arenas to artificial grasses –insist upon closed irrigation systems – and impose appropriate fines on those individuals and companies who are guilty of pollution?
Other countries have acted with heavy controls insisted upon in industry to avoid pollution of groundwater and streams – and use reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration systems to reclaim water quality, ultraviolet disinfection and advanced oxidation processes. What more can we do?
All countries over the globe must be concerned in the conservation and improvement of water quality if we are to emerge from the dark times on our polluted planet and look to a time when pristine natural environment can again be enjoyed.
But in Australia, a wide, brown, dry land, we must increase our serious efforts NOW!
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