Australia Worried Over Water Supply

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32099, 22 September 1969, Page 11

Australia Worried Over Water Supply

(JLZ.P-jt. Staff Correspondent) SYDNEY. Australia is short of water and becoming worried about the problem’s entailed in dwindling supplies.

Nothing can disguise the fact that easily obtained water is growing scarcer as population and industry grow, and that available resources in the south-east sector of the country are strained to meet demand. Two weeks ago the Federal Minister of National Develop-

ment (Mr Fairbairn) warned that Australia could no longer afford to use water

only once. He told the 10th meeting of the Australian Water Resources Council in Darwin: -We cannot continue using water once and then amply discard it.”

He said that one of the basic requirements in this field would be to educate the public that purified water was safe, and in some cases safer than existing natural supplies. Australia’s annual average rainfall is only 16} inches, well below the average 29} Inches for all land areas of the globe. Evaporation exceeds rainfall over 75 per cent erf the country.

Total discharge from Australia’s rivers each year is estimated at a little over 200 million acre feet—less than the amount that pours out of the Mississippi. The bulk of the water Australia does have Sows unchecked and unused into the ocean from its northern coastline, far from the populated areas of the south, where the need is greatest Bainfall is meagre and patchy. Droughts are now wracking two - thirds of Queensland and parts of Western Australia. Present problems of supply

to cities such as Adelaide and Melbourne highlight the pressing need for metropolitan water resources which do not depend on rainfall. Desalination plants may prove the long-term answer. Professor C. H. Munro, director of research of the Australian Water Research Foundation, says: "Poor old Adelaide. In 26 years time I don’t know what they will do unless they desalinate.” Professor Munro says that if Sydney grows to a population of five million, as is forecast, it may need a “Snowy scheme” to bring water from southern, central and northern New South Wales to the city. Australia’s water problem is here and now, but no-one has a magical solution. Despite increasing concern about water, a national plan to deal with water problems does not exist and there is no national policy on water conservation. State governments are building water storages at an

increasing rate, but there is no concerted effort and lack of money is a limiting factor. In many parts of Australia the search is on for underground artesian basins, and those already known to exist are being tapped or investigated for exploitation.

The Water Resources Council is in charge of a nationwide programme, started in 1963, to measure the country’s water resources, both surface and underground. The project was to have taken 10 yean to complete. Now this has been extended to 15 years. The survey will have a vital bearing on future decisions on the development of water resources.

LINCOLN LADIBS. L.G.U.— Sliver divirion: Mrs B. Moir. St. 17—74; Mrs F. Wilson, »4. 17—77, on the count-back from Miss S. Hutchinson. 87. 12—77. Bronte division: Mrs A. Powell, SI. 20—71, on count-back from Mrs J. Overton, 106, 35—71: Mrs A. Wright, 100. 28-72. Bronse C: Mrs K. McDrury, 112, 86—78; Mrs I. Field. 113. 36-77.