Australia Facing Water Shortages, Massive Water Cost Increases

[hatrack]

Australia faces dramatic price increases for water, coupled with massive economic losses in rural areas unless major cities find new ways to recycle or trade water, a CSIRO report issued today warns. In the next 25 years, Australia is expected to have an extra five million people, living mostly in large cities, but climate change is also predicted to cause a 15 per cent drop in water supplies over the same period, the report says.

The cost of water in the ACT could treble within 25 years to meet the demands of a population growth rate of 6 per cent. In Perth, the price of water "would need to increase by about 10 times" to manage the demands, and Sydney could expect current prices to rise by just over $6 a kilolitre.

The economic study says unless state governments invest in building desalination plants, sewage recycling and stormwater collection schemes, increasing water scarcity will "cause significant changes in the economy".

Parliamentary secretary for water Malcolm Turnbull said the report's conclusions were "fairly obvious common sense", and emphasised the need to investigate urban water recycling options, and improve the water efficiency of existing irrigation infrastructure. But farming groups and conservationists want governments to take tougher action to reduce urban water waste, claiming 80 per cent of water used in major cities is discharged to ocean outfall as sewage or stormwater.

EDIT

http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=news&subclass=environment&story_id=485114&category=Environment&m=6&y=2006