tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/water-policy-27957/articles
Water policy – The Conversation
2024-02-01T19:03:42Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/219596
2024-02-01T19:03:42Z
2024-02-01T19:03:42Z
Consulting firms provided low-quality research on crucial water policies. It shows we have a deeper problem
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572682/original/file-20240201-17-j9u2l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=28%2C17%2C3805%2C2138&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/agriculture-irrigation-silhouette-farmer-tablet-walks-2330622729">maxim ibragimov, Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Management <a href="https://www.ibisworld.com/au/industry/management-consulting/1896/#IndustryStatisticsAndTrends">consulting revenue</a> in Australia has grown from less than A$33 billion in 2010 to more than $47 billion in 2023. The increasing use of consultants, as well as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-the-pwc-scandal-theres-a-growing-case-for-a-royal-commission-into-australias-ruthless-corporate-greed-214474">PwC scandal</a>, highlights serious issues with vested interests, integrity and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/18/why-does-australia-rely-on-consulting-firms-such-as-pwc-and-not-on-its-own-public-servants">transparency</a>. </p>
<p>Consequently, a <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Finance_and_Public_Administration/Consultingservices">Senate inquiry</a> is investigating the management and integrity of consulting services. The deadline for the Senate committee’s final report has been extended twice, partly due to the <a href="https://www.themandarin.com.au/236738-the-big-fours-revelations-in-senate-estimates/">various revelations</a>, to March 28. So far, all the big consulting groups in Australia have appeared before the committee. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901123003039">recent review</a> of research in the Murray-Darling Basin points to other serious concerns about the use of consulting studies, which are increasingly relied upon for policy-making, especially in water. Of the studies we examined, 65 were on the economic consequences of water recovery. Almost half of these were low-quality studies, mainly from consultancies but also by think tanks and government departments. The low-quality studies were more likely to overestimate negative impacts on the economy and community from buying water back for the environment. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, these poor-quality studies were used to justify changes to water policy. Buying back water rights from “willing sellers” is a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-8489.12001">cost-effective way</a> to redistribute water entitlements. But buybacks were halted under the former Coalition government. The policy <a href="https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/plibersek/media-releases/getting-straight-work-restore-murray-darling-rivers">will now be restored</a> under Labor in the form of “voluntary water purchases”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/water-buybacks-are-back-on-the-table-in-the-murray-darling-basin-heres-a-refresher-on-how-they-work-200529">Water buybacks are back on the table in the Murray-Darling Basin. Here's a refresher on how they work</a>
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<h2>Contested research into water buybacks</h2>
<p>The $13 billion basin plan seeks to improve the health of our nation’s largest river system by returning water from irrigation to the environment. </p>
<p>But such water reallocation has been blamed for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/18/murray-darling-basin-water-buyback-plan-farmers-claim-rural-job-losses">huge job losses, reductions in irrigated production and consequently, economic decline in rural towns</a>. </p>
<p>There are many groups with different interests in the basin. Research results are often contested.</p>
<p>To provide an objective assessment and comparison of the quality of basin water economic study results, we developed and applied a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901123003039">new economic quality assessment framework</a>. This was inspired by health research, which has long applied grading systems to ensure robustness in research findings (such as <a href="https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/guidelinesforguidelines/develop/assessing-certainty-evidence">the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation</a>. </p>
<p>Our framework enables studies to be classified as low, medium or high quality, to suggest how robust each study’s results may be. </p>
<p>Nearly half (45 per cent) of the 65 water recovery studies in our review were classified as low quality. These low quality studies were much more likely to suggest large negative impacts on economic values from water recovery than higher quality studies. They were also more likely to be consulting studies. </p>
<p>The high quality studies (26 per cent) were peer-reviewed, employed sophisticated modelling and extensive analysis. The estimated impact of water recovery ranged from none to small or modest. None of these studies were funded by industry. </p>
<h2>Why is there such a difference in results?</h2>
<p>The method used in each study is a major factor determining research quality. Consultants often rely on simple methods such as “input-output modelling” or “multipliers” to assess economic impact. These are models that often rely upon simplistic assumptions and links within sectors in the economy to predict changes in job numbers or production. These models are not able to consider all possible influences of change. </p>
<p>Input-output modelling is <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/detailed-methodology-information/concepts-sources-methods/australian-system-national-accounts-concepts-sources-and-methods/2020-21/chapter-22-input-output-tables/using-i-o-tables-analysis">heavily criticised as inappropriate by the Australian Bureau of Statistics</a> and many treasury departments. Given this modelling is used across many areas and subjects within Australia to illustrate “economic impact”, its use and application needs greater scrutiny. </p>
<p>Higher quality studies use methods that allow for dynamic feedback and adaptation. They also account for other factors that influence outcomes such as climate or prices. As a result, higher quality studies in our review do not find anywhere near the same large decrease in jobs or economic impact from reduced water extraction. </p>
<p>For example, some feedbacks that can occur when farmers sell water include that the money is reinvested on the farm, increasing profits, or that the farm switches from irrigated to dryland agriculture, so production continues. Alternatively water recovery may increase community welfare through an improved environment, or better downstream water conditions for other farmers. Simplistic modelling approaches often ignore these other benefits.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901123003039?via%3Dihub">review</a> also indicated a relative lack of study in the basin on other downstream and Indigenous benefits and costs, as well as a need to pay closer attention to transition and adjustment issues within some small irrigation-intensive communities. </p>
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<h2>We need quality standards for water research</h2>
<p>Basin communities will increasingly need to adapt and adjust as the climate changes. We need better ways to cope with such transitions, especially in the face of future upheavals from drought and extreme weather events.</p>
<p>Hopefully the recently released funding and other <a href="https://consult.dcceew.gov.au/draft-restoring-our-rivers-framework">support for communities</a> announced in the amended <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/water/policy/restoring-our-rivers-act">water law</a> will help communities adjust to the reallocation of water. To date, such funds have <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/basin-plan/report">not been allocated</a> to areas most in need.</p>
<p>The negative socio-economic impacts predicted by low-quality studies are often used to justify changed water policies. We, along with other <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/369142/sub104-basin-plan-2023.pdf">water economic professors</a>, are calling for greater quality standards when it comes to government-funded research into the affects of water reallocation. The government is now <a href="https://storage.googleapis.com/files-au-climate/climate-au/p/prj2a8f4464525d140f6d670/public_assets/Draft450Framework.pdf">required</a> to update the impact analysis for the basin plan. It is essential that any assessment of impact is robust and defensible, following strict quality standards.</p>
<p>These quality standards could also be applied widely, across a variety of policies and areas. Although high quality research is difficult and takes time, relying on inadequate research can have serious consequences. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/suicide-rates-increased-after-extreme-drought-in-the-murray-darling-basin-we-have-to-do-better-as-climate-change-intensifies-211107">Suicide rates increased after extreme drought in the Murray-Darling Basin – we have to do better as climate change intensifies</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219596/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>An Australian Research Council discovery grant and the Murray-Darling Basin Authority provided funding for this research.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alec Zuo receives funding from an Australian Research Council discovery grant and the Murray-Darling Basin Authority provided funding for this research.</span></em></p>
A comprehensive review of research into the economic consequences of controversial water buybacks in the Murray-Darling Basin reveals many studies are of poor quality. Better standards are needed.
Sarah Ann Wheeler, Professor in Water Economics, University of Adelaide
Alec Zuo, Associate Professor, School of Economics and Public Policy, University of Adelaide
Ying Xu, Research Fellow, School of Economics and Public Policy, University of Adelaide
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/217002
2023-11-27T04:12:56Z
2023-11-27T04:12:56Z
The government’s Murray-Darling bill is a step forward, but still not enough
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561714/original/file-20231126-21-rluebs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C3058%2C2032&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sunrise-on-murray-river-near-kingstononmurray-1207917046">Philip Schubert, Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This week, the Senate is debating changes to Australia’s most important water laws. These changes seek to rescue the ailing A$13 billion Murray-Darling Basin Plan to improve the health of our nation’s largest river system. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r7076">Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Bill 2023</a> is a crucial step forward. It proposes to lift the Coalition-era cap on water buybacks, allowing the federal government to recover more water for the environment through the voluntary purchase of water entitlements from irrigators.</p>
<p>It also proposes to extend the deadlines for the many beleaguered water-offsetting projects put forward by state governments.</p>
<p>Through the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists – an independent group working to secure the long-term health of Australia’s land, water and biodiversity – we strive to restore river health for the basin’s communities, industries and ecosystems. Here we ask whether the bill can fulfil the Albanese government’s <a href="https://anthonyalbanese.com.au/media-centre/labors-plan-to-future-proof-australias-water-resources-butler">2022 election promise</a> to deliver the plan.</p>
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<h2>Securing support of the Greens and crossbenchers</h2>
<p>The bill is central to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s <a href="https://anthonyalbanese.com.au/media-centre/labors-plan-to-future-proof-australias-water-resources-butler">five-point election promise</a> to deliver the plan, and Federal Water Minister Tanya Plibersek’s <a href="https://www.tanyaplibersek.com/media/media-releases/media-release-plibersek-decade-of-liberal-national-sabotage-puts-murray-darling-basin-plan-behind/">subsequent commitment</a> to implement the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in full.</p>
<p>With the Coalition <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r7076">voting against the bill</a> in the lower house, the federal government <a href="https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/plibersek/media-releases/joint-media-release-strengthening-restoring-our-rivers-bill">secured the support</a> of the Greens with measures that considerably strengthen the bill.</p>
<p>It is now up to key crossbench Senators to secure passage through parliament. But they have said the bill doesn’t go far enough, citing serious concerns it <a href="https://www.lidiathorpe.com/mr_water_legislation">excludes First Nations water rights and interests</a> and <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/MDBAWaterBill2023/Report">ignores climate change</a>.</p>
<p>The federal government must pass the bill in the next two sitting weeks to avoid triggering a statutory deadline, after which unfinished water offset projects would be cancelled and water recovery would be required instead.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/labors-new-murray-darling-basin-plan-deal-entrenches-water-injustice-for-first-nations-212261">Labor’s new Murray-Darling Basin Plan deal entrenches water injustice for First Nations</a>
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<h2>Water Act and Basin Plan: where are we at?</h2>
<p>Born of the crisis of the Millennium drought, the Water Act 2007 was announced by the Howard government to “<a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/howards-full-speech-to-the-national-press-club/news-story/cfd6aa4761027929545602a96dc04254">once and for all</a>” address over-allocation of water in the Murray-Darling Basin.</p>
<p>Five years later, the Basin Plan 2012 was established to recover 3,200 billion litres of water for the environment from other uses, or to implement projects that deliver “equivalent” outcomes. That includes securing 450 billion litres for the health of the River Murray, Coorong and Lower Lakes.</p>
<p>But this volume of water fell substantially short of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s best estimate of what was needed to “<a href="http://www6.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/wa200783/s3.html">ensure the return to environmentally sustainable levels of extraction</a>”, and did not take climate change into account.</p>
<p>All water recovery targets were expected to be met by June 2024. But while some progress has been made, water recovery has <a href="https://wentworthgroup.org/2017/11/review-of-water-reform-in-the-murray-darling-basin/">almost stalled</a> in the past decade.</p>
<p>Only <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/water/policy/mdb/progress-recovery">26 billion litres have been recovered</a> of the crucial 450 billion litres. </p>
<p>Of the 36 water offset projects meant to be operational by 2024, <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/2023-sdlam-annual-assurance-report.pdf">16 are not likely to be complete</a>, contributing to a likely shortfall of between 190 billion and 315 billion litres.</p>
<p>No onground work has commenced to alleviate flow “constraints”, leaving thousands of hectares of floodplain forests in the River Murray disconnected from their channels and at risk of drying out and dying.</p>
<p>The Water Act and the plan <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-14/lawyers-academics-first-nations-rights-murray-darling-basin-plan/103098066">do not provide for First Nations people’s water rights and interests</a>. And they <a href="https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/67496/2/01_Pittock_The_Murray-Darling_Basin_Plan_2015.pdf">fail to deal with climate change</a>.</p>
<p>Reforms to both the legislation and the plan are desperately needed to address these major shortcomings.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/murray-darling-basin-plan-to-be-extended-under-a-new-agreement-without-victoria-but-an-uphill-battle-lies-ahead-212002">Murray-Darling Basin Plan to be extended under a new agreement, without Victoria – but an uphill battle lies ahead</a>
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<h2>Voluntary buybacks are necessary</h2>
<p>The new bill represents a clear step towards the first of the Albanese government’s <a href="https://anthonyalbanese.com.au/media-centre/labors-plan-to-future-proof-australias-water-resources-butler">five-point promises</a> to “deliver on water commitments” by removing the cap on buybacks.</p>
<p>Without buybacks, it is unlikely the federal government will be able to deliver the 3,200 billion-litre plan in full.</p>
<p>While the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/MDBAWaterBill2023/Report">Senate Committee</a> acknowledged the impacts of buybacks on communities, the committee found some concerns were “overinflated and not supported by the high-quality evidence base”, referring to a <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/mdb-outlook-economic-literature-review2.pdf">literature review</a>.</p>
<p>The Wentworth Group has <a href="https://wentworthgroup.org/2010/06/sustainable-diversions-in-the-murray-darling-basin/">long argued</a> for funding to establish a regional transition fund to support impacted communities through these reforms. As part of these reforms, “significant transitional assistance” was <a href="https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/plibersek/speeches/speech-introducing-restoring-our-rivers-bill">announced</a> by Plibersek.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/water-buybacks-are-back-on-the-table-in-the-murray-darling-basin-heres-a-refresher-on-how-they-work-200529">Water buybacks are back on the table in the Murray-Darling Basin. Here's a refresher on how they work</a>
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<h2>Statutory guarantees are needed</h2>
<p>The bill requires <a href="https://wentworthgroup.org/2023/10/submission-to-senate_inquiry_water_amendment_bill_2023/">additional measures</a> to guarantee the unfinished business to which parliament agreed more than a decade ago:</p>
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<li><p><strong>a legally binding 450 billion litre water recovery target</strong>. The public needs a legal recourse if governments fail to deliver the full volume. We understand the intent of today’s <a href="https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/plibersek/media-releases/joint-media-release-strengthening-restoring-our-rivers-bill">announcement</a> is to make the target a statutory requirement, in line with other water recovery targets under the plan.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>improved integrity of the water offset method and withdrawal of unviable water offset projects</strong> The <a href="https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/plibersek/media-releases/joint-media-release-strengthening-restoring-our-rivers-bill">agreement</a> reached today allows the Commonwealth to remove non-viable projects. <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/mf/Fulltext/MF22082">Significant flaws</a> in the method used to calculate water offsets still need to be addressed. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>milestones in the bill’s proposed “constraints roadmap”</strong> which specify targets linked to incentive payments.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>transparency and accountability measures</strong> to restore public confidence in water reform, such as whole-of-basin hydrological modelling, water accounting and auditing, and validation of annual permitted take models. </p></li>
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<p>Several of these measures were <a href="https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/plibersek/media-releases/joint-media-release-strengthening-restoring-our-rivers-bill">announced today</a>. We’re yet to see details but the high-level agreement is encouraging.</p>
<h2>Urgent reforms can’t wait to 2027</h2>
<p>Australia’s water laws have <a href="https://theconversation.com/labors-new-murray-darling-basin-plan-deal-entrenches-water-injustice-for-first-nations-212261">failed to address</a> the rights and interests of Indigenous people. Indigenous peoples <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837719319799">own a mere 0.2%</a> of surface water entitlements in the Murray-Darling Basin.</p>
<p>In 2022, the Albanese government <a href="https://anthonyalbanese.com.au/media-centre/labors-plan-to-future-proof-australias-water-resources-butler">committed</a> to “increasing First Nations ownership of water entitlements and participation in decision making”.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/MDBAWaterBill2023/Report">Senate Committee</a> found “overwhelming support […] that significantly more needs to be done to incorporate the values and interests of First Nations people in Basin Plan management”.</p>
<p>Many solutions can be readily incorporated into the bill. It should be amended so the legislation is consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and recommendations of Indigenous organisations, such as the Murray-Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations.</p>
<p>The $100 million <a href="https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/plibersek/media-releases/joint-media-release-strengthening-restoring-our-rivers-bill">announced</a> today for the Aboriginal Water Entitlement Program is welcome, although much was already <a href="https://www.tonyburke.com.au/media-releases/2019/5/6/media-release-labornbspwillnbspget-the-basin-plan-back-on-tracknbsp">committed</a> and the remainder won’t make up for the lost value given entitlement prices, according to <a href="https://mldrin.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/WEB_20230829-MLDRIN-Slide-Deck-FINAL-STC.pdf">analysis</a> commissioned by the Murray-Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations.</p>
<p>The bill also needs to provide greater clarity for basin communities on how climate change will be incorporated into the Basin Plan review, and strategies for adapting to climate change. This cannot wait until 2027 – communities need to prepare now for their future.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/victorias-plans-for-engineered-wetlands-on-the-murray-are-environmentally-dubious-heres-a-better-option-204116">Victoria’s plans for engineered wetlands on the Murray are environmentally dubious. Here’s a better option</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217002/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Celine Steinfeld is Director of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Vanderzee is a Water Policy Analyst with the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. He is a former water policy adviser to the Victorian goverment with more than 12 years experience in national and Murray-Darling Basin water reform.</span></em></p>
With the support of the Greens, there’s a chance the ‘Restoring Our Rivers’ Bill will pass. Will it be enough to put the Murray-Darling Basin Plan back on track?
Celine Steinfeld, Director, Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists & Adjunct Lecturer, UNSW Sydney
Michael Vanderzee, Australian National University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/212816
2023-09-12T12:29:30Z
2023-09-12T12:29:30Z
What Arizona and other drought-ridden states can learn from Israel’s pioneering water strategy
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546411/original/file-20230905-364-hcc2rt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5491%2C3655&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Suburban development in Maricopa County, Arizona, with lakes, lush golf courses and water-guzzling lawns. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/aerial-view-of-suburban-development-named-ocotillo-in-news-photo/1410152052">Wild Horizon/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Arizona is one of the <a href="https://www.prb.org/resources/growth-and-migration-in-the-american-southwest-a-tale-of-two-states/">fastest-growing states in the U.S.</a>, with an economy that offers many opportunities for workers and businesses. But it faces a daunting challenge: a water crisis that could seriously constrain its economic growth and vitality. </p>
<p>A recent report that projected <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/09/us/arizona-water-development-desert.html">a roughly 4% shortfall in groundwater supplies</a> in the Phoenix area over the next 100 years prompted the state to <a href="https://www.azwater.gov/phoenix-ama-groundwater-supply-updates">curtail new approval</a> of groundwater-dependent residential development in some of the region’s <a href="https://apnews.com/article/arizona-colorado-river-drought-climate-change-groundwater-52860198c654d7308137c6c7836707f4">fast-growing suburbs</a>. Moreover, negotiations continue over <a href="https://www.azwater.com/colorado-river-updates/">dwindling supplies from the Colorado River</a>, which historically supplied more than a third of the state’s water. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547337/original/file-20230910-41058-sbig07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map of the full Colorado River watershed." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547337/original/file-20230910-41058-sbig07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547337/original/file-20230910-41058-sbig07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=647&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547337/original/file-20230910-41058-sbig07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=647&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547337/original/file-20230910-41058-sbig07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=647&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547337/original/file-20230910-41058-sbig07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547337/original/file-20230910-41058-sbig07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547337/original/file-20230910-41058-sbig07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Colorado River’s watershed extends across seven U.S. states and into Mexico. Use of river water is governed by a compact negotiated in 1922.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://qcnr.usu.edu/coloradoriver/files/perspectives-map.pdf">Center for Colorado River Studies</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a partial solution, the <a href="https://www.azwifa.gov/">Arizona Water Infrastructure Finance Authority</a> is exploring a proposal to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/10/climate/arizona-desalination-water-climate.html">import desalinated water from Mexico</a>. Conceptualized by <a href="https://ide-tech.com/en/">IDE, an Israeli company</a> with extensive experience in the desalination sector, this mega-engineering project calls for building a plant in Mexico and piping the water about 200 miles and uphill more than 2,000 feet to Arizona. </p>
<p>Ultimately, the project is slated to <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-environment/2022/12/21/arizona-piping-mexico-water-desalination-colorado-river-dwindles/69745907007/">cost more than US$5 billion</a> and provide fresh water at nearly 10 times the cost of water Arizona currently draws from the Colorado River, not including long-term energy and maintenance costs. </p>
<p>Is this a wise investment? It is hard to say, since details are still forthcoming. It is also unclear how the proposal fits with Arizona’s plans for investing in its water supplies – because, unlike some states, Arizona has no state water plan.</p>
<p>As researchers who focus on water <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=kYqOHrMAAAAJ&hl=en">law</a>, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sharon-Megdal">policy</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JZBqTFcAAAAJ&hl=en">management</a>, we recommend engineered projects like this one be considered as part of a broader water management portfolio that responds holistically to imbalances in supply and demand. And such decisions should address known and potential consequences and costs down the road. Israel’s approach to desalination offers insights that Arizona would do well to consider.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6sidQzMicXY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A 20-year drought in the Colorado River basin poses critical questions for Arizona’s water future.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lands and waters at risk</h2>
<p>Around the world, water engineering projects have caused large-scale ecological damage that governments now are spending heavily to repair. Draining and straightening <a href="https://www.evergladesrestoration.gov/restoration-program-overview">the Florida Everglades</a> in the 1950s and ′60s, which seriously harmed water quality and wildlife, is one well-known example. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546421/original/file-20230905-27-4191x1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Maps showing historic, current and planned water flows in south Florida" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546421/original/file-20230905-27-4191x1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546421/original/file-20230905-27-4191x1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546421/original/file-20230905-27-4191x1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546421/original/file-20230905-27-4191x1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546421/original/file-20230905-27-4191x1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546421/original/file-20230905-27-4191x1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546421/original/file-20230905-27-4191x1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">State and federal agencies are spending billions of dollars to restore the Everglades, reversing water control projects from 1948-1963 that channelized and drained these enormous wetlands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/earth-systems/blog/tell-me-about-everglades-restoration/">US Army Corps of Engineers/Florida Museum</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Israel’s <a href="https://en.parks.org.il/reserve-park/hula-nature-reserve/">Hula wetlands</a> is another. In the 1950s, Israeli water managers viewed the wetlands north of the Sea of Galilee as a malaria-infested swamp that, if drained, would eradicate mosquitoes and open up the area for farming. The project was an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/05/world/israel-restoring-drained-wetland-reversing-pioneers-feat.html">unmitigated failure</a> that led to dust storms, land degradation and the loss of many unique animals and plants.</p>
<p>Arizona is in crisis now due to a combination of water management gaps and climatic changes. Groundwater withdrawals, which in much of rural Arizona remain unregulated, include unchecked pumping by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/16/fondomonte-arizona-drought-saudi-farm-water/">foreign agricultural interests</a> that ship their crops overseas. Moreover, with the Colorado River now in its <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-colorado-river-drought-crisis-5-essential-reads-203651">23rd year of drought</a>, Arizona is being forced to reduce its dependence on the river and <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06052023/arizona-water-sources-drought/">seek new water sources</a>.</p>
<p>The desalination plant that Arizona is considering would be built in Puerto Peñasco, a Mexican resort town on the northern edge of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Gulf-of-California">Gulf of California</a>, also known as the Sea of Cortez. Highly saline brine left over from the desalination process would be released into the gulf. </p>
<p>Because this inlet has an elongated, baylike geography, salt could concentrate in its upper region, harming endangered aquatic species such as <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/totoaba">the totoaba fish</a> and the vaquita porpoise, <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/vaquita">the world’s most endangered marine mammal</a>. </p>
<p>The pipeline that would carry desalinated water to Arizona would cross through <a href="https://www.nps.gov/orpi/index.htm">Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument</a>, a fragile desert ecosystem and UNESCO biosphere reserve that has already been damaged by <a href="https://www.popsci.com/story/environment/border-wall-damage-water-west/">construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall</a>. To run the facility, IDE proposes to build a power plant in Arizona and lay transmission lines across the same fragile desert. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546875/original/file-20230907-23-qmvgk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map showing location of proposed plant and pipeline route." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546875/original/file-20230907-23-qmvgk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546875/original/file-20230907-23-qmvgk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546875/original/file-20230907-23-qmvgk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546875/original/file-20230907-23-qmvgk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546875/original/file-20230907-23-qmvgk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546875/original/file-20230907-23-qmvgk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546875/original/file-20230907-23-qmvgk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The proposed desalination plant in Mexico would pipe fresh water 200 miles to Arizona.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.enr.com/articles/55659-arizona-advances-55b-mexico-desalination-plant-proposal">Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona/ENR Southwest</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>No single solution</h2>
<p>Israel has adapted to water scarcity and has learned from its disastrous venture in the Hula wetlands. Today the country has a <a href="https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/isr204034.pdf">water sector master plan</a> that is regularly updated and draws on water recycling and reuse, as well as a significant desalination program.</p>
<p>Israel also has implemented extensive water conservation, efficiency and recycling programs, as well as a broad economic review of desalination. Together, these sources now meet most of the nation’s water needs, and Israel has become a leader in both <a href="https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.3193">water technology and policy innovation</a>. </p>
<p>Water rights and laws in Arizona differ from those of Israel, and Arizona isn’t as close to seawater. Nonetheless, in our view Israel’s approach is relevant as Arizona works to close its water demand-supply gap. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546419/original/file-20230905-25-wwtu0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A worker in a hard hat surrounded by valves, adjusting one." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546419/original/file-20230905-25-wwtu0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546419/original/file-20230905-25-wwtu0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546419/original/file-20230905-25-wwtu0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546419/original/file-20230905-25-wwtu0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546419/original/file-20230905-25-wwtu0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546419/original/file-20230905-25-wwtu0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546419/original/file-20230905-25-wwtu0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A worker at the Sorek seawater desalination plant south of Tel Aviv, Israel, which provides 20% of the nation’s municipal water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/worker-is-seen-at-the-sorek-desalination-plant-in-palmachim-news-photo/1236763628">Gil Cohen Magen/Xinhua via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Steps Arizona can take now</h2>
<p>In our view, Arizona would do well to follow Israel’s lead. A logical first step would be making conservation programs, which are <a href="https://new.azwater.gov/conservation">required in some parts of Arizona</a>, mandatory statewide. </p>
<p>Irrigated agriculture uses <a href="https://www.arizonawaterfacts.com/water-your-facts">more than 70% of Arizona’s water supply</a>, and most of the state’s irrigated lands use <a href="https://water.usgs.gov/edu/irmethods.html">flood irrigation</a> – pumping or bringing water into fields and letting it flow over the ground. Greater use of <a href="https://water.usgs.gov/edu/irmethods.html">drip irrigation</a>, which delivers water to plant roots through plastic pipes, and other water-saving techniques and technologies would reduce agricultural water use. </p>
<p>Arizona households, which sometimes use as much as 70% of residential water for <a href="https://www.waterforarizona.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Investing-in-Arizonas-Water-final.pdf">lawns and landscaping</a>, also have a conservation role to play. And the mining sector’s groundwater use presently is <a href="https://nativenewsonline.net/opinion/arizona-must-stop-the-400b-giveaway-of-groundwater-to-the-world-s-largest-foreign-based-mining-companies">largely exempt from state regulations and withdrawal restrictions</a>. </p>
<p>A proactive and holistic water management approach should apply to all sectors of the economy, including industry. Arizona also should continue to expand programs for agricultural, municipal and industrial <a href="https://wrrc.arizona.edu/reuse-whats-in-store">wastewater reuse</a>. </p>
<p>Desalination need not be off the table. But, as in Israel, we see it as part of <a href="https://rnrf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/RRJV37N3.pdf">a multifaceted and integrated series of solutions</a>. By exploring the economic, technical and environmental feasibility of alternative solutions, Arizona could develop a water portfolio that would be far more likely than massive investments in seawater desalination to achieve the sustainable and secure water future that the state seeks.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212816/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Clive Lipchin is affiliated with the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabriel Eckstein and Sharon B. Megdal do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Arizona is considering a multibillion-dollar desalination project to address its urgent water needs. Three water experts call for a go-slow approach and point to Israel as a role model.
Gabriel Eckstein, Professor of Law, Texas A&M University
Clive Lipchin, Adjunct Professor of Environmental Studies, Tel Aviv University
Sharon B. Megdal, Professor of Environmental Science and Director, Water Resources Research Center, University of Arizona
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/212261
2023-08-31T20:00:20Z
2023-08-31T20:00:20Z
Labor’s new Murray-Darling Basin Plan deal entrenches water injustice for First Nations
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545685/original/file-20230831-15-aututx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=55%2C96%2C4561%2C3371&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Erin O’Donnell</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The federal government has struck a new <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/agreement-mdbp-delivery-full.pdf">deal</a> with most of the states in the nation’s largest river system. The agreement, announced last week, extends the $13 billion 2012 Murray-Darling Basin Plan to rebalance water allocated to the environment, irrigators and other uses. </p>
<p>Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek said the government has:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>negotiated a way to ensure there is secure and reliable water for communities, agriculture, industry, First Nations and the environment.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But there is no mention of water for First Nations in the agreement. This follows a history of Indigenous peoples being shortchanged by Murray-Darling Basin planning. Yet again, this latest deal ignores First Nations’ interests, despite millennia of <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/first-nations-call-on-government-to-end-water-rights-drought-20210107-p56sg4.html">custodianship</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/murray-darling-basin-plan-to-be-extended-under-a-new-agreement-without-victoria-but-an-uphill-battle-lies-ahead-212002">Murray-Darling Basin Plan to be extended under a new agreement, without Victoria – but an uphill battle lies ahead</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Shortchanged in reforms</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/water-management/basin-plan">Murray-Darling Basin Plan</a> was agreed in 2012 to try and improve the health of the largest and most complex river system in Australia. </p>
<p>It was a historic compromise that sought to address the often conflicting demands of states, irrigators and the environment. But the plan <a href="https://theconversation.com/aboriginal-voices-are-missing-from-the-murray-darling-basin-crisis-110769">overlooked First Nations rights</a> to own, manage and control water on Country. The plan’s current provisions include only <a href="https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/handle/10072/409545">weak requirements</a> for governments to “have regard to” First Nations values and uses. </p>
<p>In 2018 the Turnbull government put $40 million on the table for First Nations. This deal offered a <a href="https://theconversation.com/deal-on-murray-darling-basin-plan-could-make-history-for-indigenous-water-rights-96264">glimmer of hope</a> as it saw the then water minister David Littleproud and Labor water spokesperson Tony Burke commit the funds to support Basin First Nations’ investment in cultural and economic water entitlements.</p>
<p>But despite Labor renewing the commitment as part of its 2022 election platform, the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-29/first-nations-groups-urge-progress-on-water-delivery/102273040">money remains with government and has not been spent</a>. Last week, Plibersek <a href="https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/plibersek/transcripts/press-conference-sydney-minister-environment-and-water-tanya-plibersek-0">said</a> that when Labor came into government there was “very little work done about how this might happen”, and that “it is proceeding”. </p>
<p>A commitment of $40 million is also a paltry amount in the context of the wider river basin. Water research firm Aither’s 2023 <a href="https://aither.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/2022-23-Water-Markets-Report.pdf">Water Market Report</a> estimates the total value of water entitlements in the southern basin as $32.3 billion, so the government commitment of $40 million is only 0.1% of the total. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545687/original/file-20230831-15-5k9rfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Aerial view of Brewarrina historical Aboriginal fish traps on the Barwon River in the far north west of New South Wales." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545687/original/file-20230831-15-5k9rfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545687/original/file-20230831-15-5k9rfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545687/original/file-20230831-15-5k9rfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545687/original/file-20230831-15-5k9rfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545687/original/file-20230831-15-5k9rfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545687/original/file-20230831-15-5k9rfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545687/original/file-20230831-15-5k9rfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The heritage-listed stone Brewarrina fish traps on the Barwon River, which feeds into the Darling River.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/brewarrina-historical-aboriginal-fish-traps-on-1820794748">John Carnemolla, Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/water-injustice-runs-deep-in-australia-fixing-it-means-handing-control-to-first-nations-155286">Water injustice runs deep in Australia. Fixing it means handing control to First Nations</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Shortchanged in the market</h2>
<p>First Nations organisations have maintained pressure on the federal government and attempted to hold successive ministers to account for <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/betrayal-first-nations-warning-to-government-over-water-fund-pledge-20210505-p57p4u.html">unnecessary delays</a> in delivering the funding. </p>
<p>These delays mean the committed funds are decreasing in value. </p>
<p>When Littleproud initially committed the $40 million, the money was equally split between the northern and southern regions of the basin. Aither <a href="https://mldrin.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/WEB_20230829-MLDRIN-Slide-Deck-FINAL-STC.pdf">analysis</a> conducted for the <a href="https://mldrin.org/">Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations</a> shows at today’s prices, the $20 million for Nations in the southern basin can only buy two-thirds of the water that could have been acquired in 2018. In 2023, buying the same volume of water that could have been purchased in 2018 will cost almost $11 million more.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/terra-nullius-has-been-overturned-now-we-must-reverse-aqua-nullius-and-return-water-rights-to-first-nations-people-180037">Terra nullius has been overturned. Now we must reverse aqua nullius and return water rights to First Nations people</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>A fair go: investment and reform needed</h2>
<p>Limited government investment from other sources has supported some Basin First Nations to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2020.1867520">develop</a> <a href="https://www.kaiejin.org.au/pdf/Establishing%20a%20Cultural%20Flows%20Model%20on%20Tati%20Tati%20Country">plans</a> that could guide water use, to nourish their Country, maintain culture, and generate <a href="https://law.unimelb.edu.au/centres/creel/research/current-research-projects/cultural-water-for-cultural-economies">sustainable livelihoods</a>.</p>
<p>However, realising these opportunities means they need water. In an overallocated river system, amid water scarcity and rising prices, this requires genuine political will coupled with necessary reforms and adequate funding.</p>
<p>As another drought looms, and water entitlement prices remain high, more than 40 Basin Nations must share very limited funding that can only acquire a tiny – and diminishing – fraction of their water needs. These deals demonstrate sustained and systemic bipartisan political indifference to First Nations’ inherent rights. </p>
<p>If Plibersek is sincere about delivering “secure and reliable water” for First Nations, she must listen to First Nations people, and actually deliver tangible outcomes. Governments must urgently commit adequate funding for First Nations in the basin to secure water that meets our needs, before future generations are priced out of the market forever. </p>
<p>Funding for cultural flows must be coupled with reform to <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi0658">transform</a> the <a href="https://theconversation.com/water-injustice-runs-deep-in-australia-fixing-it-means-handing-control-to-first-nations-155286">foundations</a> of water governance and implement the <a href="https://mldrin.org/what-we-do/cultural-flows/">Echuca Declaration</a>. This declaration establishes cultural flows as the “inherent rights” of all First Nations in the Basin. </p>
<p>As a start, the Water Act 2007 needs to be strengthened to enshrine Basin Nations’ authority and ensure their voices are heard. </p>
<p>As the terms of the basin plan <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/current/basin-plan-2023#draft">implementation</a> are being reassessed and renegotiated, governments have an opportunity not only to listen, but also to deal First Nations in.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212261/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grant Rigney is a citizen of the Ngarrindjeri Nation and Chair of the Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN). He is also a member of the Committee on Aboriginal Water Interests and Chair of the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority. Grant is a member of the Greens Party. MLDRIN receives funding from the Australian, Victorian and NSW governments.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Erin O'Donnell is a settler who lives and works on unceded Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country. She is a member of the Birrarung Council, appointed by the Victorian Minister for Water. She receives funding from the Australian Research Council (DE230100622). She has received funding in the past from the state government of Victoria, the Murray Lower Darling Rivers (MLDRIN), the Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations, the Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organizations.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fred Hooper is a Murrawarri man from the Murrawarri Nation. Fred is the Chair of the Murrawarri Peoples Council and former Chair of the Northern Basin Aboriginal Nations (NBAN). He is also a member of the Blak Sovereign Movement. NBAN has previously received funding from the federal and state governments. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Lana D. Hartwig is a settler who lives and works on unceded Yugambeh Country. She is employed by Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN). She has received funding in the past from the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and the Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organizations.
</span></em></p>
Once again, First Nations in the Murray-Darling Basin have been shortchanged in water reform and shortchanged in the water market. It’s time to listen and actually deliver tangible outcomes.
Grant Rigney, Indigenous Knowledge
Erin O'Donnell, Senior Lecturer, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne
Fred Hooper, Indigenous knowledge holder, Indigenous Knowledge
Lana D. Hartwig, Adjunct Research Fellow, Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/206604
2023-06-22T04:03:29Z
2023-06-22T04:03:29Z
Why shouldn’t I pour oil or paint down the sink? And what should I do instead?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528756/original/file-20230529-29-7ypy4t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C10%2C3600%2C2382&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Are you ever tempted to pour used cooking oil down the sink? Just turn on the tap and flush it all away. What about that half-used tin of paint in the cupboard? It would be so easy just to wash it down the drain, wouldn’t it?</p>
<p>Well, please don’t! Not just because these bad habits cause problems in your house, backyard, apartment block or neighbourhood (and these products <em>do</em> lead to huge blockages and other issues for household pipes).</p>
<p>It’s also because pouring these things down the sink triggers society-wide problems for the entire sewerage system and the workers who maintain it.</p>
<p>For the sake of all of us, please dispose of these liquids properly. Here’s what you need to know.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1445528402253926401"}"></div></p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-where-does-my-poo-go-when-i-flush-the-toilet-does-it-go-into-the-ocean-78254">Curious Kids: Where does my poo go when I flush the toilet? Does it go into the ocean?</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A disaster for our sewerage systems</h2>
<p>The smooth day-to-day operation of our wastewater collection, treatment and disposal relies on the cooperation of people to “do the right thing”. </p>
<p>I’ve contacted many of our water utilities across Australia for this article. They are in broad agreement: <a href="https://www.sawater.com.au/my-home/leaks-or-blockages/tips-for-happy-pipes">please don’t</a> put oil, fats, grease or paint or other chemicals down the sink. </p>
<p>They all offer advice on far better alternatives. But the water industry has no control over what we do in the privacy of our homes. It really is up to us.</p>
<h2>The worst culprits</h2>
<p>Canberra’s water utility, Icon Water, gives <a href="https://www.iconwater.com.au/My-Home/Caring-for-your-drain.aspx">advice</a> on what you can and can’t flush down the sink. They rate “fats, oils and grease” as the worst culprits. </p>
<p>When still hot, oils are often liquid and easily pour. But down in the sewer pipes they rapidly cool and solidify. </p>
<p>This is a serious and common problem. Western Australia’s Water Corporation estimates <a href="https://www.watercorporation.com.au/Help-and-advice/Water-issues/Wastewater/What-not-to-flush">30%</a> of sewer blockages are due to fats, oils and grease. </p>
<p>All sewerage systems are vulnerable to blockages from unsafe materials tipped down the sink, or flushed down the toilet.</p>
<p>Oils, fats and grease can combine with other materials flushed down the toilet. These particularly include hair and so-called “flushable wipes” (which, despite the name, <a href="https://theconversation.com/regardless-of-what-the-federal-court-says-you-shouldnt-put-flushable-wipes-down-the-loo-119639">should not be flushed</a> down the loo). </p>
<p>These can build up over time, creating giant monstrosities known as “<a href="https://theconversation.com/regardless-of-what-the-federal-court-says-you-shouldnt-put-flushable-wipes-down-the-loo-119639">fatbergs</a>”: horrible clumps of wipes, hair, hardened oils and other waste.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1160719031516704769"}"></div></p>
<p>Fats and oils act as the glue that helps fatbergs build up at choke points in sewer systems. </p>
<p>Thames Water engineers in the United Kingdom worked in underground sewers for two weeks during 2021 to remove one the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/19/workers-clear-huge-disgusting-fatberg-from-london-sewer">size of a small house</a>. I’m claustrophobic and cannot imagine a more horrible job.</p>
<h2>Uncontrolled release of raw sewage</h2>
<p>Blocked sewers are not just a smelly problem for the water industry; they are bad for all of us. They can trigger the uncontrolled release of raw and untreated sewage into the environment. </p>
<p>As Sydney Water <a href="https://www.sydneywater.com.au/water-the-environment/what-you-can-do/protect-your-plumbing.html">explains</a>, these can be health and environmental nightmares. </p>
<p>I have seen raw sewage flowing in public places, parks, people’s backyards, shopping centres, thanks to blocked pipes. <a href="https://www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/safety-and-prevention/hazards/hazardous-exposures/biological-hazards/infection-risks-from-work-with-sewage#:%7E:text=Skin%20infections%3A%20Germs%20in%20sewage,Vaccination%20can%20prevent%20hepatitis%20A">Raw sewage</a> is a serious public and environmental health hazard. </p>
<h2>So what am I supposed to do instead with oils?</h2>
<p>Cooking oils can actually be <a href="https://recyclingnearyou.com.au/cooking-oil">recycled</a> and used to make stockfeeds, cosmetics and biofuels.</p>
<p>With some careful preparations diesel <a href="https://afdc.energy.gov/files/u/publication/straight_vegetable_oil_as_diesel_fuel.pdf">engines</a> can run on cooking oil. </p>
<p>It is particularly important the <a href="https://www.sydneywater.com.au/your-business/managing-trade-wastewater/commercial-trade-wastewater/retail-food-trade-wastewater.html">food industry</a> carefully manage their waste as it can generate very large volumes of fats, oil and grease. </p>
<p>Small amounts of cooking oil can safely be composted. But be careful; too much can disrupt the flow of oxygen. This can trigger anaerobic decomposition of compost, which smells unpleasant and can also attract unwanted pests. </p>
<p>Even just disposing of fats, oils and grease into the rubbish and landfill is much better than tipping it down the sink. Remember, you may need to cool hot oil down before putting it in the bin. </p>
<h2>What about tipping that old paint down the sink?</h2>
<p>Many people are unsure what to do with unused housepaint.</p>
<p>GWM Water, the water service for regional western Victoria, says paint, oils, lubricants, pesticides and thinners <a href="https://www.gwmwater.org.au/connecting-services/wastewater-sewerage-and-trade-waste/what-not-to-put-down-the-drain">should not</a> go down the sink. They can damage sewer pipes, cause pollution and create fumes which can be dangerous for maintenance workers.</p>
<p>Sewer maintenance workers have to work underground in incredibly demanding environment; squeezing into tight, enclosed spaces in sewerage system is part of the job. </p>
<p>The quality of air that they breathe reflects what people flush down the sink. Some chemicals can even create explosive conditions in sewer pipes. Sadly, sewer workers have even been killed from dangerous <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/sewage-worker-killed-after-being-5859682">fumes</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528758/original/file-20230529-27-zhp9e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528758/original/file-20230529-27-zhp9e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528758/original/file-20230529-27-zhp9e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528758/original/file-20230529-27-zhp9e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528758/original/file-20230529-27-zhp9e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528758/original/file-20230529-27-zhp9e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528758/original/file-20230529-27-zhp9e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528758/original/file-20230529-27-zhp9e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What are you supposed to do with excess house paint?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What should I do instead with old paint?</h2>
<p>Contact your local council or refer to this helpful <a href="https://files.accesscanberra.act.gov.au/legacy/3426/Preventing%20pollution%20from%20painting.pdf">guide</a> from the ACT government.</p>
<p>The paint industry encourages all people to take unwanted paints to a “<a href="https://www.paintback.com.au/find-location">Paintback</a>” dropoff centre. This industry-funded scheme aims to reduce the risks of unsafe disposal of unwanted paint products and maximise recycling.</p>
<p>Please try to thoughtfully dispose of all waste products. And please try to resist the temptation to quickly flush away oils or paint that could damage or block the sewerage system. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ive-always-wondered-can-i-flush-cat-poo-down-the-toilet-159340">I've always wondered: can I flush cat poo down the toilet?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206604/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian A Wright receives funding from industry, as well as Commonwealth, NSW and local governments. He formerly worked for Sydney Water Corporation.</span></em></p>
Pouring these products down the sink causes society-wide problems for the entire sewerage system and the workers who maintain it.
Ian A. Wright, Associate Professor in Environmental Science, Western Sydney University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/188074
2022-08-03T07:44:32Z
2022-08-03T07:44:32Z
It’s official: the Murray-Darling Basin Plan hasn’t met its promise to our precious rivers. So where to now?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477326/original/file-20220803-24-pv5yw8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C0%2C3873%2C2595&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A long-awaited <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/water/policy/mdb/policy/wesa-review">report</a> released on Tuesday found the amount of water promised to river environments under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan “cannot be achieved” under current settings. In short, the plan is failing on a key target. </p>
<p>The water is essential to protecting plants, animals and ecosystems along Australia’s most important river system.</p>
<p>One part of the plan stipulates that by 2024, 450 billion litres of water – a small proportion of the overall target – should be recovered and returned to rivers, wetlands and groundwater systems. This should be achieved through water efficiency programs funded by the Commonwealth. </p>
<p>But just two years out from the deadline, only 2.6 billion litres, or about 0.5% of this water, has actually been delivered. The findings have reignited debate about the Murray-Darling Basin – a running sore for which treatments abound, but seemingly no cure exists. </p>
<p>Before the May election, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pledged to deliver the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. But yesterday’s report, prepared by independent experts, casts serious doubt on whether that promise can be kept. The basin’s focus on a sustainable future is still a way off, and only political will can fix it.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-its-time-to-talk-about-our-water-emergency-139024">Australia, it's time to talk about our water emergency</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="headshot of blonde woman in light yellow jacket" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477330/original/file-20220803-1873-bzmrvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477330/original/file-20220803-1873-bzmrvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477330/original/file-20220803-1873-bzmrvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477330/original/file-20220803-1873-bzmrvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477330/original/file-20220803-1873-bzmrvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477330/original/file-20220803-1873-bzmrvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477330/original/file-20220803-1873-bzmrvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Political will is needed to fix the Murray Darling Basin Plan. Pictured: Federal Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What’s this all about?</h2>
<p>You could be forgiven for not having read <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/water/policy/mdb/policy/wesa-review">Tuesday’s report</a>, which bore the repellent title “Second review of the Water for the Environment Special Account”. It reflects the arcane and impenetrable jargon surrounding water management in the basin which hinders public understanding of this crucial policy area.</p>
<p>The plan involves “water recovery targets” to be met by “efficiency and constraints measures”. But what does that all mean? </p>
<p>Irrigators and other water users extract water from the rivers, streams and aquifers of the Murray-Darling Basin. Over the years, too much water has been extracted, which has left the basin in poor condition. </p>
<p>The A$13 billion Murray-Darling Basin Plan was meant to address this problem. Passed into law in 2012 under the Gillard Labor government, it promised to deliver 3,200 billion litres of water to the environment each year, by buying back water allocated to extractors and retaining it in the river system. </p>
<p>The goal comprised two targets for water to be delivered to the environment each year: 2,750 billion litres as soon as possible, and an additional 450 billion litres later, if it did not cause significant socio-economic impact. To do the latter, the federal government established a $1.8 billion Commonwealth fund to invest in water efficiency projects that would deliver water back to the environment.</p>
<p>Complicating matters, irrigators and others were opposed to water buybacks. In 2015, the Coalition government put <a href="https://www.unisa.edu.au/unisanews/2019/may/story9/">a stop</a> to the practice, despite its proven <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/murray-darling-water-recovery/report/water-recovery-report.pdf">cost-effectiveness</a> compared to alternatives such as subsidising dams and channels under efficiency programs. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="men yell and gesture during protest" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477334/original/file-20220803-17-iznlyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477334/original/file-20220803-17-iznlyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477334/original/file-20220803-17-iznlyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477334/original/file-20220803-17-iznlyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477334/original/file-20220803-17-iznlyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477334/original/file-20220803-17-iznlyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477334/original/file-20220803-17-iznlyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Irrigators and others were opposed to water buybacks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Water savings were to come from measures such as improving water efficiency on farms, and funding irrigators to reduce evaporation from dams by building them deeper.</p>
<p>But engineering does not easily replace ecological complexity shaped over millennia. Making water move more quickly down a river produces casualties: the creeks and wetlands and groundwater systems that rely on it.</p>
<p>Major efficiency projects have been exposed as <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/basin-plan/report/basin-plan-overview.pdf">inadequte</a>. They predominantly just move environmental water from one part of the basin to the other, at significant public cost. </p>
<p>So what’s the upshot of all this? According to Tuesday’s report, under current efficiency measures only 60 billion litres of water can be returned to the basin environment by 2024. What’s more, the original target of 2,750 billion litres has <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/water/policy/mdb/progress-recovery">not yet been achieved</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-looked-at-35-years-of-rainfall-and-learnt-how-droughts-start-in-the-murray-darling-basin-145766">We looked at 35 years of rainfall and learnt how droughts start in the Murray-Darling Basin</a>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Riverside tree with branch painted 'save the Darling'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477338/original/file-20220803-15-359kso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477338/original/file-20220803-15-359kso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477338/original/file-20220803-15-359kso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477338/original/file-20220803-15-359kso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477338/original/file-20220803-15-359kso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477338/original/file-20220803-15-359kso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477338/original/file-20220803-15-359kso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Coalition claimed its policy would not harm the river system.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Our rivers remain in trouble</h2>
<p>After all this effort and debate, the health of the Murray-Darling Basin continues to degrade. </p>
<p>The State of the Environment report released this month found water extraction and drought left water levels at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/19/labor-says-it-wont-put-head-in-the-sand-as-it-releases-shocking-environment-report">record lows</a> in 2019. Rivers and catchments are mostly in poor condition, and native fish populations fell by more than 90% in the past 150 years. </p>
<p>Who could forget the disaster of late 2018 and early 2019, when <a href="https://www.science.org.au/academy-newsletter/february-2019-124/academy-produces-scientific-report-darling-river-fish-kills#:%7E:text=In%20the%20wake%20of%20three,of%20river%20near%20Menindee%2C%20NSW.">millions of fish</a> died at Menindee Lakes? That disaster was <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/researchpapers/Documents/Murray%20Darling%20Basin%20-%20fish%20kills%20and%20current%20conditions.pdf">associated with</a> low river flows, from the drought exacerbated by over-extraction.</p>
<p>First Nations peoples, river communities and others that rely on healthy rivers have also <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016718519303641">borne the costs</a> of this policy failure. </p>
<p>Recent rainfall and flooding has bought breathing space, but drought will return, and climate change is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128181522000127">projected </a>to make the basin drier. </p>
<p>Other factors are denying rivers the water they need. They include <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-03/the-mystery-of-the-murray-darlings-vanishing-flows/12612166">water</a> <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2021-08-09/irrigators-lose-court-appeal-against-water-theft-charge/100362370">theft</a> and poor policy – such as the NSW government’s commitment to let water be harvested from floodplains, against <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/17/nsw-flood-plain-harvesting-rules-wont-protect-environment-government-advisers-warn#:%7E:text=Media-,NSW%20flood%20plain%20harvesting%20rules%20won,protect%20environment%2C%20government%20advisers%20warn&text=The%20Perrottet%20government%20has%20been,in%20the%20Murray%20Darling%20Basin.">warnings</a> by its own advisers.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/robber-barons-and-high-speed-traders-dominate-australias-water-market-166422">Robber barons and high-speed traders dominate Australia’s water market</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="dead white fish float on water" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477337/original/file-20220803-1873-lop19q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477337/original/file-20220803-1873-lop19q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477337/original/file-20220803-1873-lop19q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477337/original/file-20220803-1873-lop19q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477337/original/file-20220803-1873-lop19q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477337/original/file-20220803-1873-lop19q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477337/original/file-20220803-1873-lop19q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thousands of fish died at Menindee Lake after low river flows.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GRAEME MCCRABB</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Finding political will</h2>
<p>A crucial aspect not covered in the report is the lack of credible information on how much water is actually recovered by water efficiency programs. An independent audit on this is urgently needed.</p>
<p>And there remain opportunities to implement more efficient and cost-effective ways of recovering water for the environment. This could include buying back water from willing irrigators, while recognising the potential local economic effects. </p>
<p>It’s a politically difficult move – sure to attract opposition from the Nationals, as well as the NSW and Victorian governments.</p>
<p>But the health of the Murray-Darling Basin is essential for all Australians. As this latest report shows, our politicians must finally find the will to secure the basin’s future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188074/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Kingsford receives funding from State and Commonwealth Governments, including the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, as well as philanthropic funding. He is also a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. He is a member of the Society for Conservation Biology, Birdlife Australia and Ecological Society of Australia. </span></em></p>
Federal Labor has pledged to deliver the Murray Darling Basin Plan. But a new report casts serious doubt on that promise.
Richard Kingsford, Professor, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UNSW Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/184386
2022-06-06T03:57:43Z
2022-06-06T03:57:43Z
Our new environment super-department sounds great in theory. But one department for two ministers is risky
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467079/original/file-20220606-58478-csrz5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3982%2C2245&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Good news, Australia – the environment is back. Our new government has introduced a new super-department covering climate change, energy, the environment and water. </p>
<p>But while the ministry move sounds great in theory, it’s risky in practice. Having one super-department supporting two ministers – Tanya Plibersek in environment and water, and Chris Bowen for climate change and energy – is likely to stretch the public service too far. </p>
<p>If a policy area is important enough to warrant its own cabinet minister, it also warrants a dedicated secretary and department. This is especially true for the shrunken environment department, which has to rebuild staff and know-how after having over a third of its <a href="https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/auscon/pages/5148/attachments/original/1513033223/ACF-WWF_Pre-Budget_Submission_2018-19.pdf?1513033223">budget slashed</a> in the early Coalition years.</p>
<p>Supporting two cabinet ministers stretches department secretaries too thinly. It makes it hard for them to engage in the kind of deep policy development we need in such a difficult and fast-moving policy environment. </p>
<h2>What are the politics behind this move?</h2>
<p>Tanya Plibersek’s appointment last week as minister for the environment and water was the surprise of the new ministerial lineup. </p>
<p>Even if Plibersek’s move from education in opposition to environment in government was a political demotion for her, as <a href="https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/richard-marles-says-tanya-pliberseks-environment-and-water-portfolio-is-critical-and-front-and-centre-of-labors-agenda/news-story/c32b9b7e14778676ab763430428974c4">some have suggested</a>, placing the environment portfolio in the hands of someone so senior and well-regarded is a boon for the environment. </p>
<p>Having the environment in the broadest sense represented in Cabinet by two experienced and capable ministers is doubly welcome. It signifies a return to the main stage for our ailing natural world after years of relative neglect under the Coalition government. </p>
<p>It also makes good political sense, given the significant electoral gains made by the Greens on Labor’s left flank. While ‘climate’ rather than ‘environment’ was the word on everybody’s lips, other major environmental issues need urgent attention. Threatened species and declining biodiversity are only one disaster or controversy away from high political urgency. </p>
<p>When released at last, the 2021 State of the Environment Report will make environmental bad news public. Former environment minister Sussan Ley sat on the report for five months, leaving it for her successor to release it. </p>
<h2>Now comes the avalanche of policy</h2>
<p>Both ministers have a packed policy agenda, courtesy of Labor’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/20/labor-to-set-up-independent-environmental-protection-agency-and-restore-trust-and-confidence">last minute</a> commitment to creating an environmental protection agency, as well as responding to the urgent calls for change in the sweeping [2020 review] of Australia’s national environmental law <a href="https://epbcactreview.environment.gov.au">(https://epbcactreview.environment.gov.au/resources/final-report)</a>. </p>
<p>That’s not half of it. Bowen is also tasked with delivering the government’s high-profile 43% emissions cuts within eight years, which includes the Rewiring the Nation effort to modernise our grid. He will also lead Australia’s bid to host the world’s climate summit, COP29, in 2024, alongside Pacific countries. </p>
<p>Plibersek also has to tackle major water reforms in the Murray Darling basin and develop new Indigenous heritage laws to respond to the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Northern_Australia/CavesatJuukanGorge/Interim_Report">parliamentary inquiry</a> into the destruction of ancient rock art site Juukan Gorge by Rio Tinto.</p>
<h2>Can one big department cope with this workload?</h2>
<p>Creating a super-department is a bad idea. That’s because the agenda for both ministers is large and challenging. It will be a nightmare job for the department secretary tasked with supporting two ministers. It’s no comfort that the problem will be worse elsewhere, with the infrastructure department supporting <a href="https://www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/ministry-list-20220601.pdf">four cabinet ministers</a>.</p>
<p>Giving departmental secretaries wide responsibilities crossing lines of ministerial responsibility encourages them to reconcile policy tensions internally rather than putting them up to ministers, as they should. </p>
<p>The tension between large renewable energy projects and threatened species is a prime example of what can go wrong. Last year, environment minister Sussan Ley ruled a $50 billion renewable megaproject in the Pilbara <a href="https://reneweconomy.com.au/wa-slams-feds-premature-rejection-of-pilbara-renewable-hydrogen-hub/">could not proceed</a> because of ‘clearly unacceptable’ impacts on internationally recognised wetlands south of Broome. </p>
<p>Ley’s ‘clearly unacceptable’ finding stopped the project at the first environmental hurdle. That’s despite the fact the very same project was awarded ‘major project’ status by the federal government in 2020. </p>
<p>The problem here is what might have been the right answer on a narrow environmental basis was the wrong answer more broadly. </p>
<p>If Australia is to achieve its potential as a clean energy superpower and as other renewable energy <a href="https://suncable.energy/">megaprojects</a> move forward, we will need more sophisticated ways of avoiding such conflicts. This will require resolution of deep policy tensions – and that’s best done between ministers rather than between duelling deputy secretaries.</p>
<p>Super-departments also struggle to maintain coherence across the different programs they run. While large departments bring economies of scale, these benefits are more than offset by coordination and culture issues. </p>
<p>An early task for Glyn Davis, the new head of the prime minister’s department, will be to recommend a secretary for this new super-department of climate change, energy, the environment and water. In addition to the ability to absorb a punishing workload, the successful appointee will need high level juggling skills to support Plibersek and Bowen simultaneously.</p>
<p>Ironically, in dividing time between two ministers, she or he will be the least able to accept Plibersek’s call for staff of her new department to be <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7765333/minister-flags-big-shift-in-relations-with-dept-but-it-comes-with-a-warning/?cs=14264">‘all in’</a> in turning her decisions into action.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184386/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Burnett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Can one department adequately tackle climate change, energy, the environment and water? It’s unlikely.
Peter Burnett, Honorary Associate Professor, ANU College of Law, Australian National University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/168723
2021-11-17T13:18:47Z
2021-11-17T13:18:47Z
As climate change parches the Southwest, here’s a better way to share water from the shrinking Colorado River
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432048/original/file-20211115-17-nwh2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5611%2C3671&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sign at a boat ramp on Lake Mead, near Boulder City, Nevada, Aug. 13, 2021. The lake currently is roughly two-thirds empty.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/DroughtExplainerWaterShortage/c43f6923522a4a8a92016783955fd88d/photo">AP Photo/John Locher</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/mission-areas/water-resources/science/colorado-river-basin-focus-area-study">Colorado River</a> is a vital lifeline for the arid U.S. Southwest. It supplies water to seven states, Mexico, 29 Indian reservations and millions of acres of irrigated farmland. The river and its tributaries support 16 million jobs and provide drinking water to Denver, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix and Tucson – in all, 40 million people. </p>
<p>These rivers also course through several of the world’s most iconic national parks, including the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/grca/index.htm">Grand Canyon</a> in Arizona and <a href="https://www.nps.gov/cany/index.htm">Canyonlands</a> in Utah. Today millions of people visit the Colorado River Basin to fish, boat and explore.</p>
<p>Southwestern states, tribes and Mexico share the Colorado’s water under the century-old <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2727279#">1922 Colorado Compact</a> and updates to it. But today, because of climate change and rapid development, there is an enormous gap between the amount of water the compact allocates to parties and the amount that is actually in the river. With users facing unprecedented water shortages, the compact is hopelessly inadequate to deal with current and future realities. </p>
<p>I have <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Daniel-Mccool">studied water resource development</a> for 35 years and written extensively about Native American <a href="https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/command-of-the-waters">water</a> <a href="https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/native-waters">rights</a> and the <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/river-republic/9780231161305">future of America’s rivers</a>. As I see it, the compact rests on three fundamental errors that now plague efforts to develop a new vision for the region. I believe the most productive way forward is for states and tribes to negotiate a new agreement that reflects 21st-century realities. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432021/original/file-20211115-15-3hdwe4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map of Colorado River basin" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432021/original/file-20211115-15-3hdwe4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432021/original/file-20211115-15-3hdwe4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432021/original/file-20211115-15-3hdwe4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432021/original/file-20211115-15-3hdwe4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432021/original/file-20211115-15-3hdwe4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432021/original/file-20211115-15-3hdwe4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432021/original/file-20211115-15-3hdwe4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Colorado River and its tributaries drain parts of seven Western states and 29 Indian reservations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://toolkit.climate.gov/sites/default/files/CRT_locator_ColoradoRiverBasin_large.jpg">Climate.gov</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Flawed data and allocations</h2>
<p>The compact commissioners made two fatal blunders when they allocated water in 1922. First, they appraised the river’s volume based on inaccurate data that wildly overestimated it. Actual annual historic flows were far below what was needed to satisfy <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520260115/water-and-the-west">the dictates of the compact</a>. </p>
<p>There is evidence that the commissioners <a href="https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/science-be-dammed">did this purposefully</a>: Reaching an agreement was easier if there was more water to go around. This strategy guaranteed that the compact would allocate more water than was actually in the river, a situation now referred to as the “<a href="https://wrrc.arizona.edu/complex-water-management-issues">structural deficit</a>.”</p>
<p>Second, the compact allocated water in fixed amounts rather than percentages of the river’s actual flow. That approach would be viable if river flow were constant and the agreement were based on sound science. But the Colorado’s flow is highly variable. </p>
<p>The compact divided the river artificially into an Upper Basin (Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico) and a Lower Basin (Arizona, Nevada and California), and allocated 7.5 million acre-feet of water to each basin. An acre-foot is enough water to cover an acre of land to a depth of one foot, or about 325,000 gallons.</p>
<p>In 1944, a treaty allocated an additional 1.5 million acre-feet to <a href="https://www.ibwc.gov/Files/1944Treaty.pdf">Mexico</a>, for a total of 16.5 million acre-feet. However, actual flow has typically been below that amount. River volume at the time of the compact was about 18 million acre-feet per year, but the 20th-century average was closer to <a href="https://www.doi.gov/water/owdi.cr.drought/en/">14.8 million acre-feet</a>. And then things got much worse. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5CADLfXOhkU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Drought and climate change have pushed the Colorado River to a crisis point.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the past 20 years, climate change has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/2016WR019638">further reduced the Colorado’s volume</a>. A “megadrought,” now in its 21st year, has reduced flows by nearly 20%, and studies predict that it will fall <a href="https://theconversation.com/western-states-buy-time-with-a-7-year-colorado-river-drought-plan-but-face-a-hotter-drier-future-119448">20% to 35% or more by midcentury</a>. In late August 2021, Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir, was just 35% full. Lake Powell, the second-largest U.S. reservoir, was less than <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/148861/lake-powell-reaches-new-low">30% full</a>.</p>
<p>That month, the Bureau of Reclamation declared an <a href="https://www.usbr.gov/newsroom/#/news-release/3950">official shortage</a>, which will force Arizona, Nevada and Mexico to make significant cuts in water use. In short, the original fixed allocations are no longer anchored in reality. </p>
<p>In my view, a much better approach would be to allocate water among the states and tribes in percentages, based on a five-year rolling average that would change as the river’s flow changes. Without such a shift, the compact will merely perpetuate a hydrological fallacy that leads water users to claim water that does not exist.</p>
<h2>No Native participation</h2>
<p>Beyond these errors, the compact also rests on a fundamental injustice. The 30 tribal nations in the Colorado River Basin are the river’s original users, and their reservations encompass huge swaths of land. But they were completely left out of the 1922 allocations. </p>
<p>Compact commissioners, whose views reflected the overt racism of that era, assumed Native peoples <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520375796/vision-and-place">did not deserve their own allocation</a>. Making matters worse, nearly every statute, compact and regulation promulgated since 1922 – a body of rules known collectively as the <a href="https://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/pao/lawofrvr.html">Law of the River</a> – has either <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3013470">ignored or marginalized Native water users</a>. Many tribes, scholars and advocacy groups view this as <a href="http://www.naturalresourcespolicy.org/docs/water-tribes/policy-brief-1-final.pdf">an injustice of monumental proportions</a>. </p>
<p>Tribes have gone to court to claim a share of the Colorado’s water and have won significant victories, beginning with the landmark 1963 <a href="https://www.justice.gov/enrd/arizona-v-california">Arizona v. California</a> ruling, in which the U.S. Supreme Court recognized water rights for five Indian reservations in the Colorado River Basin. The tribes continued to press their claims through numerous <a href="https://unmpress.com/books/future-indian-and-federal-reserved-water-rights/9780826351227">negotiated settlements</a>, starting in 1978 and continuing to this day. They now have rights to over 2 million acre-feet of water in the Lower Basin and 1.1 million acre-feet in the Upper Basin. And 12 tribes have unresolved claims that could total up to 405,000 <a href="http://www.naturalresourcespolicy.org/publications/policy-brief-4-final-4.9.21-.pdf">acre-feet</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1426984232350584835"}"></div></p>
<p>Currently, however, tribes are not drawing all of their water because they <a href="https://grist.org/equity/colorado-river-drought-indigenous-water-rights/">don’t have the pipelines and other infrastructure that they need</a> to divert and use it. This allows non-Indian communities downstream to use the surplus water, <a href="https://tentribespartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/WaterStudy.pdf">without payment in most cases</a>. I believe a new compact should include tribes as equal partners with states and give them meaningful and significant roles in all future negotiations and policymaking in the basin. </p>
<h2>A new vision</h2>
<p>The compact states are now <a href="https://qcnr.usu.edu/coloradoriver/files/research/AGU_Udall_Science.pdf">renegotiating interim river management guidelines</a> that were first adopted in 2007. This process must be completed by 2026 when that agreement expires. </p>
<p>[<em>More than 140,000 readers get one of The Conversation’s informative newsletters.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140K">Join the list today</a>.]</p>
<p>I see these discussions as an excellent opportunity to discard the compact’s unworkable provisions and negotiate a new agreement that responds to the unprecedented challenges now affecting the Southwest. As I see it, an agreement negotiated by and for white men, based on egregiously erroneous data, in an age when people drove Model T cars cannot possibly serve as the foundation for a dramatically different future. </p>
<p>In my view, the 1922 compact is now an albatross that can only inhibit innovation. Eliminating fixed rights to water that doesn’t actually exist could spur members to negotiate a new, science-based agreement that is fairer, more inclusive and more efficient and sustainable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168723/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Craig McCool does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A Western scholar proposes allocating water from the Colorado River based on percentages of its actual flow instead of fixed amounts that exceed what’s there – and including tribes this time.
Daniel Craig McCool, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Utah
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/166422
2021-08-30T20:05:50Z
2021-08-30T20:05:50Z
Robber barons and high-speed traders dominate Australia’s water market
<p>What began as an informal arrangement between neighbouring farmers, where one farm’s surplus water could be transferred to another, has over the past two decades morphed into a complex set of commodity markets whose annual turnover exceeds A$1.8 billion.</p>
<p>When the Murray–Darling Basin water markets were established, little consideration was given to training farmers or equipping them with the tools they would need.</p>
<p>“Many older farmers struggle even to use a smartphone,” one farmer told us in research for our book <a href="https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/sold-down-the-river">Sold Down The River</a>, to be published this week. “They simply can’t use the water trading platforms.”</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418202/original/file-20210827-22966-1q3grb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418202/original/file-20210827-22966-1q3grb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418202/original/file-20210827-22966-1q3grb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=915&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418202/original/file-20210827-22966-1q3grb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=915&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418202/original/file-20210827-22966-1q3grb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=915&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418202/original/file-20210827-22966-1q3grb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1150&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418202/original/file-20210827-22966-1q3grb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1150&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418202/original/file-20210827-22966-1q3grb5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1150&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
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</figure>
<p>But others can, to their huge advantage. “Being a water broker is a lot like buying and selling shares or any other financial asset,” one investor said last year. </p>
<p>“There is no depreciation, there’s no goodwill, there is no maintenance and repairs. There are not many asset classes that are that good.”</p>
<p>The 2015 film adaptation of Michael Lewis’s bestselling <a href="https://youtu.be/vgqG3ITMv1Q">The Big Short</a> ends with a chilling line. </p>
<p>Investment genius Michael Burry had predicted the 2007 US housing market collapse and the ensuing financial crisis but, the movie said, was now “focusing all of his trading on one commodity — water”.</p>
<p>In a shocking report delivered to the treasurer in February, the Australian <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/inquiries-finalised/murray-darling-basin-water-markets-inquiry-0">Competition and Consumer Commission</a> found “scant rules governing the conduct of market participants, and no particular body to oversee trading activities, undermining confidence in fair and efficient markets”.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In particular, water market intermediaries such as brokers and exchange platforms currently operate in a mostly unregulated environment, resulting in a lack of clarity regarding the role brokers play, and permitting undisclosed conflicts of interest to arise.</p>
<p>Trading behaviours that can undermine the integrity of markets, such as market manipulation, are not prohibited, insider trading prohibitions are insufficient, and information gaps make these types of detrimental conduct difficult to detect.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The report has shifted the debate about water in the Murray-Darling Basin. Regulators, politicians, officials and researchers all realise that something has gone horribly wrong.</p>
<h2>Scant rules, little oversight</h2>
<p>At the beginning of the water trading experiment, little effort was put into defining the goals of water trading, or how its success would be measured. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-murrumbidgee-rivers-wet-season-height-has-dropped-by-30-since-the-1990s-and-the-outlook-is-bleak-165764">The Murrumbidgee River's wet season height has dropped by 30% since the 1990s — and the outlook is bleak</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Yet despite that oversight, it’s easy to conclude that on any relevant measure the market has failed. It has failed the environment. It has failed farmers and towns. It has failed to recognise the rights of Indigenous Australians. And it has failed in its basic function of allocating water to where it can best be used.</p>
<p>Like a plane crash, the market failed because crucial systems and backups broke down simultaneously. </p>
<p>Here are the top four fractures in the multi-point failure:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Essential design steps weren’t taken. The designers spent little time on ensuring proper market conduct and integrity. There are multiple exchanges and at no particular moment is there a clear picture of the market value of water rights, even within the same valley. Large irrigators appear to be taking water over which they don’t have rights and selling it outside the markets to farmers of walnuts and other thirsty crops, leaving <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/environment/sustainability/water-watchdog-has-big-riverina-irrigator-in-its-sights-over-diversion-20210611-p580d0.html">dying rivers</a> in their wake.</p></li>
<li><p>To ensure the water market was “liquid”, the designers removed restrictions on who could own and trade water rights. Then they took the extraordinary step of exempting traders from regulation that would normally apply to financial markets and markets for commodities. External traders used tactics no one anticipated including market manipulation and high-speed trading.</p></li>
<li><p>The <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2016C00469">Commonwealth Water Act</a> gave responsibility for overseeing the markets to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, whose expertise is competition, rather than the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, whose expertise is in finance. A <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/consultation/corporations-and-australian-securities-and-investments-commission-legislation-amendment-water-trading-exemptions-regulation-2014">2014 regulation</a> expressly exempted basic tradable water rights from the definition of “derivative” under the ASIC Act.</p></li>
<li><p>There is little precision in the water policy debate. Terms such as “hoarding”, “efficiency”, “speculation” and “investment” are used without consistency or clarity. People in and around the Murray-Darling Basin have been talking over each other for years, allowing rorts that should have been caught early to persist.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Added to these are a series of counter-intuitive tax advantages and subsidies that drive water rights away from the best land toward arid lands far down-river. </p>
<h2>The silence is deafening</h2>
<p>A giant policy experiment is sucking hundreds of millions of dollars each year out of the Murray-Darling Basin, and it is sending water away from our most productive land and what used to be our most vibrant food-bowl communities.</p>
<p>The federal government has had the <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/inquiries-finalised/murray-darling-basin-water-markets-inquiry/final-report">report</a> of the Competition Commission’s water markets inquiry since February. The silence is deafening.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/water-injustice-runs-deep-in-australia-fixing-it-means-handing-control-to-first-nations-155286">Water injustice runs deep in Australia. Fixing it means handing control to First Nations</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In our research and in our book, we have mapped out a way forward for allocating scarce irrigation water and balancing the management of our largest river system. </p>
<p>Indigenous rights, environmental sustainability and food security are but some of what’s at stake.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166422/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott is affiliated with H4 CO PTY LTD and is a panel member at the Energy Transition Hub and is a member of the Australian Labor Party. Scott is a senior advisor to the Smart Energy Council and consults to governments, businesses and communities. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stuart Kells does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A new book says Australia’s 20-year water trading experiment is sucking hundreds of millions of dollars each year out of the Murray-Darling Basin and directing water away from productive land.
Scott Hamilton, Strategic Advisory Panel Member, Australian-German Energy Transition Hub, The University of Melbourne
Stuart Kells, Adjunct Professor, College of Arts, Social Sciences and Commerce, La Trobe University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/158772
2021-05-11T02:46:50Z
2021-05-11T02:46:50Z
‘Boys and their toys’: how overt masculinity dominates Australia’s relationship with water
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399399/original/file-20210507-23-h4b7nb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C24%2C5472%2C3604&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Australia over recent months, the fury of women has been hard to ignore. The anger, much of it directed at the toxic masculine culture <a href="https://theconversation.com/cultural-misogyny-and-why-mens-aggression-to-women-is-so-often-expressed-through-sex-157680">of Parliament House</a>, has sparked a national conversation about how these attitudes harm women.</p>
<p>The movement has led me to think about how masculine cultures pervade our relationship with water. I worked as a civil engineer in the water industry for nine years, managing projects from planning through to construction. I’m now a water policy researcher, and in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2021.1886832">recent paper</a> I explored how dominant masculinity is limiting our response to dire water problems.</p>
<p>Overly masculine environments affect the way decisions are made. In particular, a reliance on technological and infrastructure “fixes” to solve problems is linked to masculine ideas of power.</p>
<p>Under this way of thinking, water is to be controlled, re-purposed and rerouted as needed. I believe we must reassess these old methods. Does it really need to be all about control and power? Managing water in tandem with nature may be more prudent. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="two male engineers look at dam" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399401/original/file-20210507-25-vore35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399401/original/file-20210507-25-vore35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399401/original/file-20210507-25-vore35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399401/original/file-20210507-25-vore35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399401/original/file-20210507-25-vore35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399401/original/file-20210507-25-vore35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399401/original/file-20210507-25-vore35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dams and other major water infrastructure are a mainstay of male-dominated water management.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Hiring women is not enough</h2>
<p>In the case of federal parliament, the toxic masculinity problem has partly been blamed on a lack of women in senior roles. Similarly, in the area of water supply, sewerage and drainage services, <a href="https://data.wgea.gov.au/">only 19.8% of the workforce</a> comprises people who identify as women (compared to 50.5% across all industries). The sector include state government departments, water authorities and consultancies. </p>
<p>Globally, the lack of women in water engineering has primarily been addressed by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/19378629.2017.1361427">increasing</a> the representation of women in the field, <a href="https://www.wsaa.asn.au/sites/default/files/publication/download/Tapping%20the%20Power%20of%20Diversity.pdf">on boards</a> and in management. </p>
<p>However creating a more diverse workforce does not automatically lead to a diversity of thinking. In the case of water management, hiring women, or others such as LGBTI and Indigenous employees, does <a href="https://www.wsaa.asn.au/sites/default/files/publication/download/Tapping%20the%20Power%20of%20Diversity.pdf">not necessarily mean</a> their contributions are valued. Very often, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/19378629.2017.1361427">a masculine culture</a> prevails. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-national-water-policy-is-outdated-unfair-and-not-fit-for-climate-challenges-major-new-report-155116">Our national water policy is outdated, unfair and not fit for climate challenges: major new report</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="male engineer points as female look on" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399405/original/file-20210507-21-19htqh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399405/original/file-20210507-21-19htqh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399405/original/file-20210507-21-19htqh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399405/original/file-20210507-21-19htqh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399405/original/file-20210507-21-19htqh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399405/original/file-20210507-21-19htqh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399405/original/file-20210507-21-19htqh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hiring women is not enough - their contribution should be valued.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Pipelines and gadgets aren’t always the answer</h2>
<p>Toxic masculinity doesn’t just refer to overtly sexist cultures or allegations of sexual assault. It can also refer to male-dominated decision making where other ideas are undervalued.</p>
<p>Take, for example, the dominant “technocracy” approach to water management, in which infrastructure and technology is relied on to solve problems.</p>
<p>In Australia as elsewhere, this can perhaps be seen in the emergence of “smart water management” which uses gadgets such as smart meters and other technology to gather and communicate real-time data to help address water management challenges. </p>
<p>As other researchers <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343748198_The_moral_hazards_of_smart_water_management">have argued</a>, this “<a href="https://www.routledge.com/Boys-and-their-Toys-Masculinity-Class-and-Technology-in-America/Horowitz/p/book/9780415929332">boys and their toys</a>” approach perpetuates a mindset that sustainability problems - often caused by deep-seated structural and behaviour faults such as over-consumption - can be solved with engineering and technology.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-cant-drought-proof-australia-and-trying-is-a-fools-errand-124504">We can’t drought-proof Australia, and trying is a fool's errand</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The idea that technology is a symbol of masculinity has been explored by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X03260956">many</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3178066">feminist</a> <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/42968827">theorists</a>. </p>
<p>Technical prowess, being “in control” and rationality have <a href="https://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php/allabs/19-a-1-1-7/file">historically been seen</a> as typically male characteristics. And senior technological roles are <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1097184X03260956">usually occupied</a> by men. </p>
<p>There’s nothing inherently wrong with using technology to solve water issues. But when technocratic thinking is “monolithic” and ignores wider societal issues, it can become a problem. </p>
<p>Take, for example, Victoria’s North-South pipeline built during the Millennium Drought. This A$750 million piece of infrastructure connected to Melbourne in 2010 but has <a href="https://www.3aw.com.au/the-750m-pipe-weve-never-used-and-never-will-but-still-pay-for/">lain idle</a> ever since – largely due to fears from farmers that taking water from rural areas will hurt agricultural output.</p>
<p>Similarly, desalination plants in many parts of Australia are an expensive technological approach that solve one problem, yet can create <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/as-water-scarcity-increases-desalination-plants-are-on-the-rise">many others</a>. They use a lot of energy, which contributes to climate change if drawn from fossil fuels, and can damage marine life.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two men look at laptop" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399413/original/file-20210507-17-jsscc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399413/original/file-20210507-17-jsscc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399413/original/file-20210507-17-jsscc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399413/original/file-20210507-17-jsscc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399413/original/file-20210507-17-jsscc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399413/original/file-20210507-17-jsscc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399413/original/file-20210507-17-jsscc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Most technology jobs in water management are occupied by men.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Finding another way</h2>
<p>Global water scarcity is inescapable. Water use is growing at a <a href="https://worldwater.io/">rate faster</a> than population growth while climate change is <a href="https://theconversation.com/seriously-ugly-heres-how-australia-will-look-if-the-world-heats-by-3-c-this-century-157875">diminishing</a> clean water suppies in many areas.</p>
<p>We need look no further than Australia’s trouble-plagued Murray Darling Basin to know it’s time to reassess the old methods and explore new ways in our relationship with water. </p>
<p>Exerting control over water – say, building an extensive sewer network and water supply system – may have been needed when Australia was modernising. But now it’s time to take a more humble approach that works in tandem with the environment. </p>
<p>A different approach would incorporate valuable knowledge in the social sciences, such as recognising the politics and social issues at play in how we manage water. </p>
<p>For example, in 2006 residents in the Queensland town of Toowoomba rejected the prospect of drinking <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/toowoomba-says-no-to-recycled-water-20060731-gdo2hm.html">recycled wastewater</a> after a highly politicised referendum campaign. Residents had <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/06/can-recycled-water-be-the-next-frontier-for-towns-running-out-of-drinking-water">just three months</a> to consider the proposal, which divided the community. A non-masculine approach might involve better public consultation and an effort by authorities to understand community attitudes prior to planning.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/water-injustice-runs-deep-in-australia-fixing-it-means-handing-control-to-first-nations-155286">Water injustice runs deep in Australia. Fixing it means handing control to First Nations</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Australians are the world’s <a href="https://www.yourhome.gov.au/water">greatest per capita consumers</a> of water. A new approach might also involve questioning this consumptive <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2020.1805579">behaviour</a> and reducing our water use, rather than relying on technological fixes.</p>
<p>Such approaches are likely to require giving up some control. And it may require working closely with traditional owners to incorporate Indigenous understandings of water.</p>
<p>In 2017 for example, the New Zealand government <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-rivers-are-now-legally-people-but-thats-just-the-start-of-looking-after-them-74983">passed legislation</a> that recognised the Whanganui River catchment as a legal person. The reform formally acknowledged the special relationship local Māori have with the river.</p>
<p>This different approach may also mean moving to community decision making models or even programs to increase youth involvement in water management. </p>
<p>An over-reliance on technology and infrastructure papers over the need to understand the behaviours that lead to water problems. We must seek new, sustainable approaches that recognise the role of water in our social, political and cultural lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158772/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Kosovac does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Pipelines, dams, gadgets: does water management really need to be all about control and power? Adopting less masculine ideas and working with nature may be more prudent.
Anna Kosovac, Research Fellow in Water Policy, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/155286
2021-02-16T18:53:22Z
2021-02-16T18:53:22Z
Water injustice runs deep in Australia. Fixing it means handing control to First Nations
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384389/original/file-20210216-20-jh3lsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C16%2C5472%2C3620&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s widely understood that rivers, wetlands and other waterways hold particular significance for First Nations people. It’s less well understood that Indigenous peoples are denied effective rights in Australia’s water economy.</p>
<p>Australia’s laws and policies prevent First Nations from fully participating in, and benefiting from, decisions about water. In fact, Indigenous peoples hold less than 1% of Australia’s water <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/resources7010016">rights</a>.</p>
<p>A Productivity Commission report into <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/current/water-reform-2020#draft">national water policy</a> released last week acknowledged the demands of First Nations, noting “Traditional Owners aspire to much greater access to, and control over, water resources”.</p>
<p>The commission suggested a suite of policy reforms. While the recommendations go further than previous official reports, they show a lack of ambition and would ensure water justice continues to be denied to First Nations.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three Indigenous children smiling in water" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384390/original/file-20210216-22-nvdj56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384390/original/file-20210216-22-nvdj56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384390/original/file-20210216-22-nvdj56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384390/original/file-20210216-22-nvdj56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384390/original/file-20210216-22-nvdj56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384390/original/file-20210216-22-nvdj56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384390/original/file-20210216-22-nvdj56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Water plays a fundamental role in the cultural, spiritual and physical well-being of Indigenous people.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>No voice, no justice</h2>
<p>First Nations people have almost <a href="https://theconversation.com/aboriginal-voices-are-missing-from-the-murray-darling-basin-crisis-110769">no say</a> in how water is used in Australia. This denies them the power to prevent water extraction that will damage communities and landscapes, and in many cases means they’re unable to fulfil their responsibilities to care for Country.</p>
<p>It also means First Nations are excluded from much of Australia’s agricultural wealth, which is tied to access to water for irrigation. </p>
<p>In the New South Wales portion of the Murray-Darling Basin, for example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2020.1868980">our research</a> found Indigenous peoples are almost 10% of the population yet comprise only 3.5% of the agricultural workforce. First Nations also own just 0.5% of agricultural businesses and receive less than 0.1% of agricultural revenue.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/aboriginal-voices-are-missing-from-the-murray-darling-basin-crisis-110769">Aboriginal voices are missing from the Murray-Darling Basin crisis</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Cotton farm" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384391/original/file-20210216-16-tyu7t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384391/original/file-20210216-16-tyu7t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384391/original/file-20210216-16-tyu7t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384391/original/file-20210216-16-tyu7t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384391/original/file-20210216-16-tyu7t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384391/original/file-20210216-16-tyu7t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384391/original/file-20210216-16-tyu7t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">First Nations people enjoy only a tiny portion of Australia’s agricultural wealth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alvin Wong/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Piecemeal water reform</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.agriculture.gov.au/sites/default/files/sitecollectiondocuments/water/Intergovernmental-Agreement-on-a-national-water-initiative.pdf">National Water Initiative</a> – a blueprint for water reform signed by all Australian governments in 2004 – committed to consulting with Traditional Owners in water planning, accounting for native title rights to water and including cultural values in water plans. </p>
<p>The Productivity Commission report said progress towards these commitments “has been slow and objectives have not been fully achieved”. </p>
<p>The report contains several welcome recommendations, including that:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>a new water policy be devised, with a dedicated objective and targets to improve First Nations access to water and involvement in water management</p></li>
<li><p>the recently formed Committee on Aboriginal Water Interests “co-design” new provisions relating to First Nations’ water interests, and have direct dialogue with water ministers</p></li>
<li><p>a First Nations-led model of water reform be adopted, centred on the concept of “<a href="https://www.mldrin.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Law-and-Policy-Summary.pdf">cultural flows</a>”. This concept calls for substantial increases to First Nations’ water access and more control in decision-making.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man wrapped in Aboriginal flag stands on river bank." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384426/original/file-20210216-23-181x9f7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384426/original/file-20210216-23-181x9f7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384426/original/file-20210216-23-181x9f7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384426/original/file-20210216-23-181x9f7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384426/original/file-20210216-23-181x9f7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384426/original/file-20210216-23-181x9f7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384426/original/file-20210216-23-181x9f7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Productivity Commission recommended a First Nations-led model of water reform.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Richard Wainwright/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Cause of injustice ignored</h2>
<p>Sadly, the Productivity Commission does not address the structural problems underlying inequities in Indigenous water rights. </p>
<p>In particular, it wrongly assumes policy success should be measured in terms of efficiency and the integrity of water markets, rather than justice for First Nations. </p>
<p>Water sold on markets goes to the highest bidder. This rewards large agricultural enterprises and others who historically held land and water rights, gained through the dispossession of First Nations people. And it penalises First Nations peoples who are unlikely to own productive farming land, or who don’t always wish to use water for irrigated agriculture.</p>
<p>In some cases, poorly funded Indigenous organisations have traded away their water rights to keep afloat, and will find it near-impossible to buy the water back. Our research shows this pattern drove a 17% decline in Indigenous water holdings in the Murray-Darling Basin over the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837719319799">past decade</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-an-ugly-legacy-of-denying-water-rights-to-aboriginal-people-not-much-has-changed-141743">Australia has an ugly legacy of denying water rights to Aboriginal people. Not much has changed</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The commission’s recommendations rely heavily on <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Indigenous-Rights-and-Water-Resource-Management-Not-Just-Another-Stakeholder/OBryan/p/book/9780367664855">policy architecture</a> and <a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/Indigenous-Water-Rights-Law-Regulation-Elizabeth-Jane-Macpherson/9781108473064">legal foundations</a> that <a href="https://aiatsis.gov.au/publication/35022">fail First Nations</a>.</p>
<p>For example, in 1998 the Howard Government legislated to <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/143869368.pdf">exclude water infrastructure and entitlements</a> from parts of the Native Title Act. This means that infrastructure and licensing can proceed without negotiation with native title holders. </p>
<p>The Productivity Commission overlooked ways to correct this injustice – such as the Law Reform Commission’s <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/publication/connection-to-country-review-of-the-native-title-act-1993-cth-alrc-report-126/">proposal</a> to change the law so native title holders can benefit from commercial use of water. </p>
<p>The commission’s response to conflict over developments such as dams is also inadequate. Rather than transfer final decision-making power to First Nations groups, it proposes that developments be more “culturally responsive”. </p>
<p>This will not protect cultural heritage. Case in point is the NSW government’s plan to raise the <a href="https://nit.com.au/raising-of-warragamba-dam-to-destroy-over-1200-cultural-sites/">Warragamba Dam wall</a>, creating a flood that threatens more than 1200 Indigenous cultural sites. Statutory protections are needed to head off such proposals. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Warragamba Dam" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384393/original/file-20210216-18-1ln4566.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384393/original/file-20210216-18-1ln4566.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384393/original/file-20210216-18-1ln4566.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384393/original/file-20210216-18-1ln4566.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384393/original/file-20210216-18-1ln4566.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384393/original/file-20210216-18-1ln4566.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384393/original/file-20210216-18-1ln4566.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Warragamba Dam plan threatens Indigenous cultural sites.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Stronger models for reform</h2>
<p>The United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf">is clear</a>: Indigenous peoples should have the power to decide on development proposed on their lands and waters.</p>
<p>An agreement between the Ngarrindjeri nation and the South Australian government in the lower Murray River region <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14486563.2019.1651227">shows</a> how even modest rights can both empower Traditional Owners and lead to successful environmental management.</p>
<p>The agreement enables a co-management approach where authority in developing natural resource management policy is shared. Unfortunately, reforms of this type are beyond the ambition of the Productivity Commission report. </p>
<p>Addressing water injustice also requires returning water to First Nations, such as by buying back water entitlements and guaranteeing cultural flows in water plans. The Productivity Commission outlines how this might occur, but falls short of recommending this vital measure. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/deal-on-murray-darling-basin-plan-could-make-history-for-indigenous-water-rights-96264">current policy framework</a> has allowed <a href="https://theconversation.com/victoria-just-gave-2-billion-litres-of-water-back-to-indigenous-people-heres-what-that-means-for-the-rest-of-australia-150674">some advances</a>. But if water justice to Indigenous peoples is to be realised, changes to policy and laws must go far deeper.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/victoria-just-gave-2-billion-litres-of-water-back-to-indigenous-people-heres-what-that-means-for-the-rest-of-australia-150674">Victoria just gave 2 billion litres of water back to Indigenous people. Here's what that means for the rest of Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155286/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sue Jackson receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the National Environmental Research Program, and the Murray-Darling Basin Authority. She is a member of the Murray-Darling Basin’s Advisory Committee on Social, Economic and Environmental Sciences and the Lake Eyre Basin Ministerial Forum’s Scientific Advisory Panel. She made a submission to the Productivity Commission in August 2020 in relation to its inquiry into water reform.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francis Markham receives funding from several state and Commonwealth government agencies on matters unrelated to water policy.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fred Hooper is affiliated with Northern Basin Aboriginal Nations (NBAN) and is the Chair of the Murrawarrai Peoples Council. Fred represents NBAN on the NSW Aboriginal Water Coalition.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grant Rigney is affiliated with the Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations and is a Committee member of the Committee Indigenous Water Interests. Grant is also a Director of Kuti co and Chairperson of Ngarrindjeri Peoples Native Title Compensation Charitable Trust.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lana Hartwig has served as a consultant for Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN), Northern Basin Aboriginal Nations (NBAN), and the Murray-Darling Basin Authority. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rene Woods is affiliated with Murray Darling Wetlands Water Group as an advisor on Aboriginal Water, is a Board Member of the Murray Darling Basin Authority and a Member of the Committee on Aboriginal Water Interests.</span></em></p>
First Nations people have almost no say in how water is used in Australia. The Productivity Commission’s latest report does little to address that.
Sue Jackson, Professor, Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University
Francis Markham, Research Fellow, College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University
Fred Hooper, Indigenous knowledge holder, Indigenous Knowledge
Grant Rigney, Indigenous knowledge holder, Indigenous Knowledge
Lana D. Hartwig, Research Fellow, Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University
Rene Woods, Indigenous Knowledge Holder, Indigenous Knowledge
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/155116
2021-02-11T04:18:04Z
2021-02-11T04:18:04Z
Our national water policy is outdated, unfair and not fit for climate challenges: major new report
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383672/original/file-20210211-19-15a153.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C13%2C2940%2C1944&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most Australians know all too well how precious water is. Sydney just experienced a <a href="https://www.sydneywater.com.au/SW/about-us/our-publications/Media/have-no-doubt--we-re-in-drought/index.htm">severe drought</a>, while towns across New South Wales and Queensland <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/queensland-floods-warwick-two-years-worth-rain-weather-drought-news-australia/75f626e9-7f66-4078-b36e-720cfe0de0f8">ran out of drinking water</a>. Under climate change, the situation will become more dire, and more common. </p>
<p>It wasn’t meant to be this way. In 2004, federal, state and territory governments signed up to the <a href="https://www.agriculture.gov.au/sites/default/files/sitecollectiondocuments/water/Intergovernmental-Agreement-on-a-national-water-initiative.pdf">National Water Initiative</a>. It was meant to secure Australia’s water supplies through better governance and plans for sustainable use across industry, environment and the community.</p>
<p>But a report by the <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/current/water-reform-2020/draft">Productivity Commission</a> released today says the policy must be updated. It found the National Water Initiative is not fit for the challenges of climate change, a growing population and our changing perceptions of how we value water. </p>
<p>The report’s findings matter to all Australians, whether you live in a city or a drought-ravaged town. If governments don’t manage water better, on our behalf, then entire communities may disappear. Agriculture will suffer and nature will continue to degrade. It’s time for a change.</p>
<h2>A big job ahead</h2>
<p>The report acknowledges progress in national water reform, and says Australia’s allocation of water resources has improved. But the commission makes clear there’s still much to be done, including:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>making water infrastructure projects a critical part of the National Water Initiative</p></li>
<li><p>explicitly recognising how climate change threatens water-sharing agreement between states, users, towns, agriculture and the environment</p></li>
<li><p>more meaningful recognition of Indigenous rights to water</p></li>
<li><p>delivering adequate drinking water quality to all Australians, including those in regional and remote communities, especially during drought</p></li>
<li><p>all states committing to drought management plans.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rlaPnaGk7S8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Why Australia needs National Water Reform.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Busting water illusions</h2>
<p>The commission’s proposal to make water infrastructure developments a much larger part of the National Water Initiative is a critical way to keep governments honest. </p>
<p>For years, state and federal governments have used taxpayers’ dollars to pay for <a href="https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=4ad1c8f5-0436-4e8f-b3ce-64be2fb2149f">farming water infrastructure</a> that largely benefits <a href="https://apo.org.au/node/262286">the big end of town</a> — large, corporate irrigators. </p>
<p>For example, the federal government last year announced an additional A$2 billion for its “<a href="https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/mccormack/media-release/budget-2020-building-21st-century-water-infrastructure">Building 21 Century Water infrastructure</a>” project. This type of funding represents a return to schemes like the discredited <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-01/bradfield-scheme-is-moving-water-from-north-to-south-feasible/11662942">Bradfield</a> scheme, a plan to redirect floodwater from Queensland’s north to the south, including to South Australia. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-inland-rivers-are-the-pulse-of-the-outback-by-2070-theyll-be-unrecognisable-136492">Australia’s inland rivers are the pulse of the outback. By 2070, they’ll be unrecognisable</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Such <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-01/bradfield-scheme-is-moving-water-from-north-to-south-feasible/11662942">megaprojects</a>, even when relabelled or reconceived, perpetuate simplistic myths of the early 20th Century that Australia – the driest inhabited continent on Earth – can be “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/25/we-are-talking-about-drought-proofing-again-they-are-simplistic-solutions-that-will-destroy-australia">drought-proofed</a>”.</p>
<p>As the report highlights, when governments in 2004 signed up to the <a href="https://www.agriculture.gov.au/sites/default/files/sitecollectiondocuments/water/Intergovernmental-Agreement-on-a-national-water-initiative.pdf">National Water Initiative</a>, they agreed to ensure investments in water infrastructure would be both economically viable and ecologically sustainable. But many proposed water infrastructure projects <a href="https://waterjusticehub.org/submission-by-the-australian-national-universitys-institute-for-water-futures-to-the-productivity-commissions-national-water-reform-inquiry/">appear to be neither</a>.</p>
<p>This includes the construction of <a href="https://www.waternsw.com.au/projects/new-dams-for-nsw/dungowan-dam">Dungowan Dam in NSW</a>. For this dam, the commission notes, “any infrastructure that improves reliability for one user will affect water availability for others” and the “prospect of ‘new’ water is illusory”.</p>
<p>The commission warned projects that are not economically viable or ecologically sustainable can “burden taxpayers with ongoing costs, discourage efficient water use and result in long-lived impacts on communities and the environment”. </p>
<p>Equally disturbing is that billions of dollars for water infrastructure are currently targeted primarily for primary industry (such as agriculture and mining) while communities in desperate need of drinking water that meets water quality guidelines <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07900627.2019.1685950">miss out</a>. Thousands of Australians in more remote communities still <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07900627.2019.1685950">lack access</a> to drinking water most Australians take for granted. </p>
<h2>Water scarcity under climate change</h2>
<p>Water availability under climate change features prominently in the report. The commission says droughts will likely become more intense and frequent and in many places, water will become scarce.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/to-help-drought-affected-farmers-we-need-to-support-them-in-good-times-as-well-as-bad-101184">To help drought-affected farmers, we need to support them in good times as well as bad</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The report says planning provisions were inadequate to deal with both the Millennium Drought and the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/environment/sustainability/barwon-darling-river-faces-collapse-from-government-mistakes-report-20190724-p52a7i.html">recent drought</a> in Eastern Australia. </p>
<p>The commission also said more work is needed to rebalance water use in response to climate change. One need only look to the 2012 Murray-Darling Basin Plan — one of the key outcomes of the National Water Initiative — which didn’t <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S146290112030215X?dgcid=rss_sd_all">account for climate change</a> when determining how much water to take from streams and rivers.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383673/original/file-20210211-15-m3zobr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Aerial view of a wetland in the Murray-Darling Basin" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383673/original/file-20210211-15-m3zobr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383673/original/file-20210211-15-m3zobr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383673/original/file-20210211-15-m3zobr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383673/original/file-20210211-15-m3zobr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383673/original/file-20210211-15-m3zobr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383673/original/file-20210211-15-m3zobr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383673/original/file-20210211-15-m3zobr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thousands of Australians lack access to drinking water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Overcoming past failures</h2>
<p>As the commission report notes, one key policy failure since the 2004 National Water Initiative was signed was the federal government’s <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2014-05-13/budget-water/5430960">dismantling of the National Water Commission</a> in 2015. It meant Australia no longer had a resourced, well-informed agency to “mark the homework” and make sure the reforms were being implemented as agreed.</p>
<p>The report offers ways to overcome a range of past policy water failures, including strengthening governance architecture for the National Water Initiative.</p>
<p>Importantly, the report also called for better recognition of the rights Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people hold over water. </p>
<p>Aboriginal communities and corporations own <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-an-ugly-legacy-of-denying-water-rights-to-aboriginal-people-not-much-has-changed-141743">just 0.1%</a> of the more than A$26 billion of water entitlements in the Murray-Darling Basin. Clearly, such gross inequities must be overcome.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383678/original/file-20210211-24-1emv55m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Dried-up river in the Basin" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383678/original/file-20210211-24-1emv55m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383678/original/file-20210211-24-1emv55m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383678/original/file-20210211-24-1emv55m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383678/original/file-20210211-24-1emv55m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383678/original/file-20210211-24-1emv55m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383678/original/file-20210211-24-1emv55m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383678/original/file-20210211-24-1emv55m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The report calls for more meaningful recognition of Indigenous rights to water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What happens in the Murray-Darling Basin is key to national water reform. There is overwhelming evidence the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/05/murray-darling-basin-plan-fails-environment-and-wastes-money-experts">basin plan needs fixing</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://murraydeclaration.org/the-declaration">To start</a>, subsidies for irrigation-related water infrastructure should be halted until a comprehensive audit is conducted to determine who gets water, when and how. And an independent, properly funded expert agency should be established to monitor, advise and implement the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2017C00151">law for managing</a> the Basin’s water resources. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/topics/river-murray-new/basin-plan/murray-darling-basin-commission">800-page report</a> of the 2019 South Australia Murray-Darling Royal Commission proposes many ways forward. Yet unfortunately, that substantial body of work is not mentioned in the Productivity Commission’s report.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-an-ugly-legacy-of-denying-water-rights-to-aboriginal-people-not-much-has-changed-141743">Australia has an ugly legacy of denying water rights to Aboriginal people. Not much has changed</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>We’re still waiting for change</h2>
<p>In 2007, the worst year of the Millennium Drought, <a href="https://apo.org.au/node/262286">Prime Minister John Howard</a> said the current trajectory of water use and management in Australia was not sustainable. He said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In a protracted drought, and with the prospect of long-term climate change, we need radical and permanent change.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We are still waiting for that change. If Australia is to be prosperous and liveable into the future, governments must urgently implement water reform – including adopting recommendations from the Productivity Commission’s report. </p>
<p>If it fails to act, our landscapes will degrade, agriculture will become unsustainable, communities will disintegrate and First Peoples will continue to suffer water injustice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155116/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Quentin Grafton is affiliated with the Institute for Water Futures (IWF) at the Australian National University. The IWF made a submission to the Productivity Commission in August 2020 in relation to its inquiry into National Water Reform. He is an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and is currently leading a project on water justice and resilience.</span></em></p>
A major new report from the Productivity Commission calls for an overhaul of Australia’s 17-year-old policy on water.
Quentin Grafton, Director of the Centre for Water Economics, Environment and Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/144860
2020-09-11T08:41:19Z
2020-09-11T08:41:19Z
How India’s civil society can shape the country’s water policy
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357380/original/file-20200910-20-ieiydp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C2389%2C1796&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">India's civil society has opposed engineering-based water management such as large dams, river linking and canal irrigation, for environmental and social reasons, but often ideological reasons. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/1HK8RLtdPVE">www.unsplash.com/@akshat_agrawal11</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>India’s National Water Policy is meant to provide a definite course of action on water management, ensuring the country’s population of nearly 1.3 billion and industries have access to adequate water for various uses. </p>
<p>The country first adopted a National Water Policy (NWP) in 1987, which was revised in 2002. Technocrats and bureaucrats drafted the first two versions of the policy. The third revision took place in 2012. Alhough the water ministry held consultations with all stakeholders, including civil society, the drafting committee had only one representative of civil society. </p>
<p>The civil society has always opposed engineering-based water management, such as large dams, river linking and canal irrigation, sometimes for environmental and social reasons, but often for ideological reasons. </p>
<p>Another revision is now due and, for the first time, civil society organisations make up the majority of a committee to draft the National Water Policy. </p>
<p>Civil society representatives, who for the past 30 years have been critical of India’s water policies, now have the opportunity to drive policy recommendations for water management in the world’s second-most-populous country. </p>
<p>But, with a majority on the drafting committee, they now have a responsibility to not get carried away by romantic and unimplementable ideas. They must produce a policy draft that is workable in the real world. </p>
<p>In this piece, we provide some dos and don'ts for developing a credible NWP which will have an impact on India’s water management policies, practices and processes.</p>
<h2>1. Avoid ideological preaching</h2>
<p>Members of the drafting committee should understand that a water policy should not be a lofty statement of how the nation wishes things to be. </p>
<p>Rather, it must be a realistic and achievable statement of how water resources should be managed, so the desired social, economic and environmental outcomes can be achieved. </p>
<p>All recommendation must be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound. </p>
<h2>2. When presenting a paradigm shift, NWP must provide evidence</h2>
<p>Civil society has criticised engineering interventions such as dams, barrages, inter-basin transfers of water, flood control embankments and hydropower. Therefore, one presumes the policy drafted by civil society actors will move away from these traditional interventions and suggest some new paradigm. </p>
<p>The drafting committee needs to assure the decision-makers, and also the people at large, that their paradigm is realistic and will provide food and water security.</p>
<p>The best way to ensure confidence in their paradigm is to quantify the recommendations. </p>
<p>The policy should include a basin-wise statement of the total estimated demand, the quantity of water to be set aside for environmental objectives, and the quantity of water that will be available for human consumption, separately from surface and groundwater sources, as per the new paradigm.</p>
<h2>3. Be clear and concrete</h2>
<p>Vague statements like “The water resources available to the country should be brought within the category of utilisable resources to the maximum possible extent”, as found in the 2002 National Water Policy, are simply good-sounding words that have no real meaning. </p>
<p>The drafting committee for the new policy must avoid such vague statements. </p>
<p>They must also avoid ideas that are good in principle only and cannot be implemented. </p>
<p>Typical examples are planning for the basin as a unit, river basin organisations, and integrated water resources management. These ideas have been in all the NWPs right from 1987, and the water sector’s total inability to implement them has been demonstrated beyond doubt. </p>
<p>Why these can not be implemented is a topic for a separate article. However, the drafting committee must not ignore the evidence. Not even one interstate river basin organisation has been established in the past 30 years, let alone made to function.</p>
<h2>4. Be realistic</h2>
<p>It is very tempting for the drafters of the National Water Policy to try to match water availability and demand by modifying cropping patterns. </p>
<p>For example, to turn a deficit river basin to a surplus basin, the drafting committee might dream up doing away with all sugarcane, or replacing rice and wheat with millets, and justify the switch by arguing that millets are health food. </p>
<p>However, to think the people will stop eating rice and wheat and start eating millets, or that the entire economy built on sugar mills can be sacrificed, just because the water policy says so, is a pipedream. </p>
<p>Moreover, there are many things India must consider as an exporter of a wide range of agricultural products, such as rice, wheat, sugar, cotton, fruits and flowers. These factors include production per hectare, profit margins, farmers’ income, and trade considerations. All these cannot be subservient to the single consideration of which crop has the lowest water requirement. </p>
<p>In addition, agriculture is in the jurisdiction of the states. Even the central agricultural ministry cannot enforce the cropping patterns devised by the drafters of the National Water Policy, let alone the central water ministry. </p>
<h2>5. Use instructional language</h2>
<p>In all three versions of the National Water Policy so far, the language has been very unsure. For example Clause 6.1 of NWP-3 reads: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>A system to evolve benchmarks for water uses for different purposes, i.e., water footprints, and water auditing should be developed to promote and incentivise efficient use of water. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>To say that “water auditing should be developed” makes it a piece of advice, which the recipient is free to accept or reject. The authors of NWP-3 could have written: “A system to evolve benchmarks for water uses for different purposes, i.e., water footprints, and water auditing shall be developed …” </p>
<p>One wonders what stopped the authors of NWP-3 from using decisive and assertive language. Unless NWP-4 does away with this “should” word, it will remain only a piece of advice. The state water resources departments will be free to flout it, as they have done consistently.</p>
<h2>Managing water resources is a huge undertaking</h2>
<p>The task facing the drafting committee is huge and complex. India’s Constitution places water, and also agriculture, in the jurisdiction of the states. This means, the states formulate plans and execute them. </p>
<p>Control of water is a very sensitive subject. Each state wants its share of water to be defined, either by an inter-state agreement or by a judicial process, and opposes any external control of how to manage the share of water given to it. The states are reluctant to allow what they perceive as a dilution of their authority and control.</p>
<p>While the water ministry may produce policies and plans, many variables and policy actions depend on cross-sector agencies. </p>
<p>For example, the environment ministry decides how much water is required for environmental flows. </p>
<p>The agriculture ministry decides price support for farm produce. And the finance ministry decides whether or not funds are available. </p>
<p>All these factors have major implications for water planning.</p>
<p>The constitution gives jurisdiction over water to the states and they have the responsibility to provide water to the farmers. Therefore, the states will do what they must do, no matter what is written in the NWP.</p>
<p>The drafting committee faces another challenge. Having been very vocal in criticising the engineering-based policy, they have heightened the expectations from them, and they now have to live up to those expectations. If they write a policy that is high on ideology but deficient in hydrology and fails to deliver water and food security, they will have to accept that hydrology has veto power over ideology.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144860/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chetan Pandit is a former member of India's Central Water Commission.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Asit K. Biswas tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham, atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi selain yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>
India’s civil society, which for the past 30 years has been critical of India’s water policies, now has the opportunity to drive the policy recommendations for water management.
Chetan Pandit, Visiting faculty, National Water Academy of India's Central Water Commission
Asit K. Biswas, Distinguished visiting professor, University of Glasgow
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/141743
2020-07-24T02:03:21Z
2020-07-24T02:03:21Z
Australia has an ugly legacy of denying water rights to Aboriginal people. Not much has changed
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349041/original/file-20200723-32-1ml9k9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4961%2C3304&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Water management in the Murray-Darling Basin has radically changed over the past 30 years. But none of the changes have addressed a glaring injustice: Aboriginal people’s share of water rights is minute, and in New South Wales it is diminishing.</p>
<p>In the 1990s, governments tried to restore the health of rivers in the basin by <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/sites/default/files/archived/cap/SETTING_THE_CAP.pdf">limiting</a> how much water could be extracted. They also separated land and water titles to enable farmers to trade water. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/aboriginal-voices-are-missing-from-the-murray-darling-basin-crisis-110769">Aboriginal voices are missing from the Murray-Darling Basin crisis</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This allowed the recovery of water for the environment and led to the world’s biggest water market, now worth <a href="https://daff.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/search/asset/1027121/2">billions of dollars</a>. For a range of reasons, Aboriginal people have largely been shut out of this valuable water market.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837719319799">Our research</a>, the first of its kind, shows Aboriginal water entitlements in the Murray-Darling Basin are declining, and further losses are likely under current policies. This water injustice is an ongoing legacy of colonisation.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349060/original/file-20200723-22-imvure.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A shallow river cuts through brown land, beside a gum tree." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349060/original/file-20200723-22-imvure.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349060/original/file-20200723-22-imvure.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349060/original/file-20200723-22-imvure.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349060/original/file-20200723-22-imvure.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349060/original/file-20200723-22-imvure.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349060/original/file-20200723-22-imvure.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349060/original/file-20200723-22-imvure.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Aboriginal people have largely been shut out of the market.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>An unjust distribution of water</h2>
<p>A water use right, also called a licence or entitlement, grants its holder a share of available water in a particular waterway. Governments allocate water against these entitlements periodically, <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/sites/default/files/attachments/basin-plan-rollout/1113_planning-assumptions_allocation-vs-usage.jpg">depending on rainfall and water storage</a>. Entitlement holders choose how to use this water. Typically, they extract it for purposes such as irrigation, or sell it on the temporary market.</p>
<p>We mapped Aboriginal water access and rights in NSW over more than 200 years, including the current scale of Aboriginal-held water entitlements.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/water-in-northern-australia-a-history-of-aboriginal-exclusion-60929">Water in northern Australia: a history of Aboriginal exclusion</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Across ten catchments in the NSW portion of the Murray-Darling Basin, Aboriginal people collectively hold just 12.1 gigalitres of water. This is a mere 0.2% of all available surface water (as of October 2018).</p>
<p>By comparison, Aboriginal people make up 9.3% of this area’s population. </p>
<p>The value of water held by Aboriginal organisations was A$16.5 million in 2015-16 terms, equating to just 0.1% of the value of the Murray-Darling Basin’s water market.</p>
<p>We wanted to understand how these limited water rights affect Aboriginal people today, and the challenges, if any, they face in holding onto these entitlements. This required examining Australia’s water history and its systems of water rights distribution.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-water-no-leadership-new-murray-darling-basin-report-reveals-states-climate-gamble-136514">No water, no leadership: new Murray Darling Basin report reveals states' climate gamble</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>What we found were key moments when governments denied Aboriginal people water rights and, by extension, the benefits that now flow from water access. This includes the ability to use water for an agricultural enterprise, or to temporarily trade water as many other entitlement holders do. We describe these moments as waves of dispossession.</p>
<h2>The first wave of dispossession</h2>
<p>Under colonial water law, rights to use water, for example for farming, were granted to whoever owned the land where rivers flowed. This link between water use and land-holding remained in place <a href="https://theconversation.com/water-in-northern-australia-a-history-of-aboriginal-exclusion-60929">until the end of the 20th century</a>. </p>
<p>As a result, Aboriginal people, whose traditional ownership of land (native title) was only recognised by the Australian High Court in 1992, were largely denied legal rights to water.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346519/original/file-20200709-50-160bopt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346519/original/file-20200709-50-160bopt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346519/original/file-20200709-50-160bopt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346519/original/file-20200709-50-160bopt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346519/original/file-20200709-50-160bopt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346519/original/file-20200709-50-160bopt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346519/original/file-20200709-50-160bopt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Water entitlements held by Aboriginal by catchment in the NSW portion of the MDB (as at October 2018)</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The second wave</h2>
<p>During the last quarter of the 20th century, governments introduced land restitution measures, such as the NSW Aboriginal Land Rights Act (1983), to redress or compensate Indigenous peoples for colonial acts of dispossession.</p>
<p>We found water entitlements were attached to some of the land parcels that were transferred to Aboriginal ownership under these processes – but this was the exception.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-ways-the-government-can-clean-up-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-116265">5 ways the government can clean up the Murray-Darling Basin Plan</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Land restitution processes intentionally restricted what land Aboriginal people could claim. They were biased against properties with agricultural potential and, therefore, very few of the properties that were returned to Aboriginal ownership came with water entitlements. </p>
<p>At this crucial juncture in land rights reform, federal and state governments entrenched the inequity of water rights distribution by increasing the security of the water rights of those who historically held entitlements. Governments have yet to pay serious attention to the claims of Aboriginal people who see <a href="https://www.agriculture.gov.au/sites/default/files/sitecollectiondocuments/water/72-northern-basin-aboriginal-nations.pdf">a clear connection</a> between the past and the present in the distribution of water entitlements.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/7/1/16">native title framework</a> has not helped the situation either. Native title is the recognition that Indigenous peoples have rights to land and water according to their own laws and customs. </p>
<p>But it’s difficult for those making a native title claim to get substantial interests in land and waters. The Native Title Act 1993 defined native title to include rights to water for customary purposes and courts are yet to recognise a commercial right to water.</p>
<h2>The third wave</h2>
<p>We also identified a third wave of dispossession, now underway. From 2009 to 2018, the water rights held by Aboriginal people in the NSW portion of the Murray-Darling Basin shrunk by at least 17.2% (2.0 gigalitres of water per year). No new entitlements were acquired during this decade. </p>
<p>The decline is attributable to several factors, the most significant being forced permanent water (and land) sales arising from the liquidation of Aboriginal enterprises. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-inland-rivers-are-the-pulse-of-the-outback-by-2070-theyll-be-unrecognisable-136492">Australia’s inland rivers are the pulse of the outback. By 2070, they’ll be unrecognisable</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>With water rights held by Aboriginal people vulnerable to further decline, the options for Aboriginal communities to enjoy the wide-ranging benefits of water access may further diminish.</p>
<p>We expect rates of Aboriginal water ownership to be even smaller in other parts of the Murray-Darling Basin (and in jurisdictions beyond the Basin). Research is underway to explore this.</p>
<h2>Australia urgently needs a fair national water policy</h2>
<p>The Productivity Commission is now <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/current/water-reform-2020#issues">reviewing</a> Australian water policy, and must urgently address the injustices faced by Aboriginal people. </p>
<p>In developing a just water policy, governments must <a href="https://theconversation.com/aboriginal-voices-are-missing-from-the-murray-darling-basin-crisis-110769">work with First Nations</a> towards the twin goals of redressing historical inequities in water access <em>and</em> stemming further loss of water rights. Treaty negotiations may offer another avenue for water reform.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/while-towns-run-dry-cotton-extracts-5-sydney-harbours-worth-of-murray-darling-water-a-year-its-time-to-reset-the-balance-133342">While towns run dry, cotton extracts 5 Sydney Harbours' worth of Murray Darling water a year. It's time to reset the balance</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Over recent decades, Australia has been coming to terms with its colonial history of land management, returning more than a third of the continent to some form of Indigenous control under a “land titling revolution”.</p>
<p>But a water titling revolution that reconnects water law and policy to the social justice agenda of land restitution is long overdue. Indigenous peoples must have the opportunity to care for their land and waters holistically, and share more equitably in the benefits of water use.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141743/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lana Hartwig has served as a consultant to Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN) and the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sue Jackson receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is a member of the Murray Darling Basin Authority's Advisory Committee on Social, Economic and Environmental Sciences. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natalie Osborne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Across the NSW portion of the Murray-Darling Basin, Aboriginal people make up almost 10% of the population. Yet they hold a mere 0.2% of all available surface water.
Lana D. Hartwig, Research Fellow, Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University
Natalie Osborne, Lecturer, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University
Sue Jackson, Professor, ARC Future Fellow, Griffith University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/139024
2020-05-21T20:01:47Z
2020-05-21T20:01:47Z
Australia, it’s time to talk about our water emergency
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336455/original/file-20200520-152338-sb23lb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C3429%2C2286&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The last bushfire season showed Australians they can no longer pretend climate change will not affect them. But there’s another climate change influence we must also face up to: increasingly scarce water on our continent. </p>
<p>Under climate change, rainfall will become more unpredictable. Extreme weather events such as cyclones will be more intense. This will challenge water managers already struggling to respond to Australia’s natural boom and bust of droughts and floods. </p>
<p>Thirty years since Australia’s water reform project began, it’s clear our efforts have largely failed. Drought-stricken rural towns have literally run out of water. Despite the recent rains, the Murray Darling river system is being run dry and struggles to support the communities that depend on it.</p>
<p>We must find another way. So let’s start the conversation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336464/original/file-20200520-152284-bwnzan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336464/original/file-20200520-152284-bwnzan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336464/original/file-20200520-152284-bwnzan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336464/original/file-20200520-152284-bwnzan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336464/original/file-20200520-152284-bwnzan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336464/original/file-20200520-152284-bwnzan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336464/original/file-20200520-152284-bwnzan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s time for a new national discussion about water policy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joe Castro/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How did we get here?</h2>
<p>Sadly, inequitable water outcomes in Australia are not new.</p>
<p>The first water “reform” occurred when European settlers acquired water sources from First Peoples without consent or compensation. Overlaying this dispossession, British common law gave new settlers land access rights to freshwater. These later converted into state-owned rights, and are now allocated as privately held water entitlements.</p>
<p>Some 200 years later, the first steps towards long-term water reform arguably began in the 1990s. The process accelerated during the Millennium Drought and in 2004 led to the <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/water-reform/national-water-initiative-agreement-2004.pdf">National Water Initiative</a>, an intergovernmental water agreement. This was followed in 2007 by a federal <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/C2007A00137">Water Act</a>, upending exclusive state jurisdiction over water.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/while-towns-run-dry-cotton-extracts-5-sydney-harbours-worth-of-murray-darling-water-a-year-its-time-to-reset-the-balance-133342">While towns run dry, cotton extracts 5 Sydney Harbours' worth of Murray Darling water a year. It's time to reset the balance</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Under the National Water Initiative, state and territory water plans were to be verified through water accounting to ensure “adequate measurement, monitoring and reporting systems” across the country.</p>
<p>This would have boosted public and investor confidence in the amount of water being traded, extracted and recovered – both for the environment and the public good.</p>
<p>This vision has not been realised. Instead, a narrow view now dominates in which water is valuable only when extracted, and water reform is about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.104755">subsidising water infrastructure</a> such as dams, to enable this extraction.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336465/original/file-20200520-152292-2a8c88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336465/original/file-20200520-152292-2a8c88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336465/original/file-20200520-152292-2a8c88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336465/original/file-20200520-152292-2a8c88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336465/original/file-20200520-152292-2a8c88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336465/original/file-20200520-152292-2a8c88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336465/original/file-20200520-152292-2a8c88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The National Water Initiative has failed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why we should all care</h2>
<p>In the current drought, rural towns have literally run out of fresh drinking water. These towns are not just dots on a map. They are communities whose very existence is now threatened.</p>
<p>In some small towns, drinking water can taste unpleasant or contain high levels of nitrate, threatening the health of babies. Drinking water in some remote Indigenous communities is not always treated, and the quality rarely checked. </p>
<p>In the Murray-Darling Basin, poor management and low rainfall have caused dry rivers, mass fish kills, and distress in Aboriginal communities. Key aspects of the basin plan have not been implemented. This, coupled with bushfire damage, has caused long-term ecological harm. </p>
<h2>How do we fix the water emergency?</h2>
<p>Rivers, lakes and wetlands must have enough water at the right time. Only then will the needs of humans and the environment be met equitably - including access to and use of water by First Peoples.</p>
<p>Water for the environment and water for irrigation is not a zero-sum trade-off. Without healthy rivers, irrigation farming and rural communities cannot survive. </p>
<p>A national conversation on water reform is needed. It should recognise and include First Peoples’ values and knowledge of land, water and fire. </p>
<p>Our water brief, <a href="https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/204069">Water Reform For All</a>,
proposes six principles to build a national water dialogue:</p>
<blockquote>
<ol>
<li>establish shared visions and goals</li>
<li>develop clarity of roles and responsibilities</li>
<li>implement adaptation as a way to respond to an escalation of stresses, including climate change and governance failures</li>
<li>invest in advanced technology to monitor, predict and understand changes in water availability</li>
<li>integrate bottom-up and community-based adaptation, including from Indigenous communities, into improved water governance arrangements</li>
<li>undertake policy experiments to test new ways of managing water for all </li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336466/original/file-20200520-152298-10l7lkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336466/original/file-20200520-152298-10l7lkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336466/original/file-20200520-152298-10l7lkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336466/original/file-20200520-152298-10l7lkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336466/original/file-20200520-152298-10l7lkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336466/original/file-20200520-152298-10l7lkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/336466/original/file-20200520-152298-10l7lkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Darling River is in poor health.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ask the right questions</h2>
<p>As researchers, we don’t have all the answers on how to create a sustainable, equitable water future. No-one does. But in any national conversation, we believe these fundamental questions must be asked:</p>
<blockquote>
<ol>
<li><p>who is responsible for water governance? How do decisions and actions of one group affect access and availability of water for others? </p></li>
<li><p>what volumes of water are extracted from surface and groundwater systems? Where, when, by whom and for what?</p></li>
<li><p>what can we predict about a future climate and other long-term drivers of change? </p></li>
<li><p>how can we better understand and measure the multiple values that water holds for communities and society?</p></li>
<li><p>where do our visions for the future of water align? Where do they differ?</p></li>
<li><p>what principles, protocols and processes will help deliver the water reform needed?</p></li>
<li><p>how do existing rules and institutions constrain, or enable, efforts to achieve a shared vision of a sustainable water future?</p></li>
<li><p>how do we integrate new knowledge, such as water availability under climate change, into our goals?</p></li>
<li><p>what restitution is needed in relation to water and Country for First Peoples?</p></li>
<li><p>what economic sectors and processes would be better suited to a water-scarce future, and how might we foster them?</p></li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<h2>Water reform for all</h2>
<p>These questions, if part of a national conversation, would reinvigorate the water debate and help put Australia on track to a sustainable water future.</p>
<p>Now is the time to start the discussion. Long-accepted policy approaches in support of sustainable water futures are in question. In the Murray-Darling Basin, some states even question the value of catchment-wide management. The formula for water-sharing between states is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/14/water-wars-will-politics-destroy-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-and-the-river-system-itself">under attack</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-official-expert-review-rejects-nsw-plan-to-let-seawater-flow-into-the-murray-river-138291">It's official: expert review rejects NSW plan to let seawater flow into the Murray River</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Even science that previously underpinned water reform is <a href="http://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php/alldoc/articles/vol13/v13issue1/561-a13-1-1/file">being questioned</a></p>
<p>We must return to basics, reassess what’s sensible and feasible, and debate new ways forward. </p>
<p>We are not naive. All of us have been involved in water reform and some of us, like many others, suffer from reform fatigue.</p>
<p>But without a fresh debate, Australia’s water emergency will only get worse. Reform can – and must – happen, for the benefit of all Australians.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The following contributed to this piece and co-authored the report on which it was based: Daniel Connell, Katherine Daniell, Joseph Guillaume, Lorrae van Kerkoff, Aparna Lal, Ehsan Nabavi, Jamie Pittock, Katherine Taylor, Paul Tregoning, and John Williams</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139024/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Quentin Grafton received funding from The Murray-Darling Basin Authority in 2010-11. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Colloff has participated in projects funded by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder. He is affiliated with the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Wyrwoll and Virginia Marshall do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Thirty years since Australia’s water reform project began, it’s clear our efforts have largely failed. We must find another way.
Quentin Grafton, Director of the Centre for Water Economics, Environment and Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Matthew Colloff, Honorary Senior Lecturer, Australian National University
Paul Wyrwoll, Research fellow, Australian National University
Virginia Marshall, Inaugural Indigenous Postdoctoral Fellow, Australian National University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/137591
2020-05-03T19:51:07Z
2020-05-03T19:51:07Z
Aren’t we in a drought? The Australian black coal industry uses enough water for over 5 million people
<p>Water is a highly contested resource in this long, oppressive drought, and the coal industry is one of Australia’s biggest water users.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.acf.org.au/water_for_coal">Research released today</a>, funded by the <a href="https://www.acf.org.au/">Australian Conservation Foundation</a>, has identified how much water coal mining and coal-fired power stations actually use in New South Wales and Queensland. The answer? About 383 billion litres of fresh water every year. </p>
<p>That’s the same amount 5.2 million people, or more than the entire population of Greater Sydney, uses in the same period. And it’s about 120 times the water used by wind and solar to generate the same amount of electricity. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cutting-green-tape-may-be-good-politicking-but-its-bad-policy-here-are-5-examples-of-regulation-failure-137164">Cutting ‘green tape’ may be good politicking, but it’s bad policy. Here are 5 examples of regulation failure</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Monitoring how much water is used by industry is vital for sustainable water management. But a lack of transparency about how much water Australia’s coal industry uses makes this very difficult.</p>
<p>Adani’s controversial Carmichael mine in central Queensland was granted a <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/environment/barbaric-adanis-giant-coal-mine-granted-unlimited-water-licence-for-60-years-20170404-gvd41y.html">water licence</a> that allows the company to take as much groundwater as it wants, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/environment-minister-melissa-price-signs-off-on-adani-project-20190409-p51cc0.html">despite fears</a> it will damage aquifers and groundwater-dependent rivers.</p>
<p>Now more than ever, we must make sure water use by coal mines and power stations are better monitored and managed.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331914/original/file-20200501-42951-1gvtpe5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331914/original/file-20200501-42951-1gvtpe5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331914/original/file-20200501-42951-1gvtpe5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331914/original/file-20200501-42951-1gvtpe5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331914/original/file-20200501-42951-1gvtpe5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331914/original/file-20200501-42951-1gvtpe5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331914/original/file-20200501-42951-1gvtpe5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331914/original/file-20200501-42951-1gvtpe5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Data on total water use by coal mines is not publicly available.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why does coal need so much water?</h2>
<p>Mines in NSW and Queensland account for 96% of Australia’s black coal production.</p>
<p>Almost all water used in coal mines is consumed and cannot be reused. Water is used for coal processing, handling and preparation, dust suppression, on-site facilities, irrigation, vehicle washing and more. </p>
<p>Coal mining’s water use rate equates to a total consumption of almost 225 billion litres a year in NSW and Queensland, which can be extrapolated to 234 billion litres for Australia, for black coal without considering brown coal. </p>
<p>About 80% of this water is freshwater from rainfall and runoff, extracted from rivers and water bodies, groundwater inflows or transferred from other mines. Mines are located in regions such as the Darling Downs, the Hunter River and the Namoi River in the Murray-Darling Basin.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-it-comes-to-climate-change-australias-mining-giants-are-an-accessory-to-the-crime-124077">When it comes to climate change, Australia's mining giants are an accessory to the crime</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The other 20% comes from water already contained in tailings (mine residue), recycled water or seepage from the mines. </p>
<p>The burning of coal to generate energy is also a large water user. Water use in coal-fired power stations is even harder to quantify, with a <a href="https://senate.texas.gov/cmtes/82/c510/0110BI-ANWC.pdf">report from 2009</a> providing the only available data. </p>
<p>Water is used for cooling with power stations using either a once-through flow or recirculating water system. </p>
<p>The water consumed becomes toxic wastewater stored in ash ponds or is evaporated during cooling processes. Water withdrawn is returned to rivers which can damage aquatic life due to the increased temperature. </p>
<h2>No transparency</h2>
<p>Data on total water use by coal mines is not publicly available. Despite the development of Australian and international <a href="https://minerals.org.au/water-accounting-framework-australian-minerals-industry">water accounting frameworks</a>, there is no reporting to these standards in coal mine reports. </p>
<p>This lack of consistent and available data means water use by the coal industry, and its negative effects, is not widely reported or understood. The problem is compounded by complex regulatory frameworks that allow gaps in water-use reporting.</p>
<p>A patchwork of government agencies in each state regulate water licences, quality and discharge, coal mine planning, annual reviews of mine operations and water and environmental impacts. This means that problems can fall through the gaps.</p>
<h2>Digging for data</h2>
<p>An analysis of <a href="https://www.bulgacoal.com.au/en/publications/environmental-reporting/AEMR/Annual%20Review%202018.pdf">annual reviews</a> from 39 coal mines in NSW, provided data on water licences and details of water used in different parts of the mine. </p>
<p>Although they are part of mandatory reporting, the method of reporting water use is not standardised. The reviews are required to report against surface water and groundwater licences, but aren’t required to show a comprehensive water balanced account. Annual reviews for Queensland coal mines were not available. </p>
<p>Collated water use — <a href="https://www.watercalculator.org/footprint/water-use-withdrawal-consumption/">both water consumption and water withdrawal</a> – showed coal mining consumes approximately 653 litres for each tonne of coal produced.</p>
<p>This rate is 2.5 times more than a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220274663_Systems_modelling_for_effective_mine_water_management">previous water-use rate</a> of 250 litres per tonne, from research in 2010.</p>
<p>Using this rate the total water consumed by coal mining is 40% more than the total amount of water reported for all types of mining in NSW and Queensland by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in the same year.</p>
<h2>By the numbers</h2>
<p>NSW and Queensland coal-fired power stations annually consume <a href="https://senate.texas.gov/cmtes/82/c510/0110BI-ANWC.pdf">158,300 megalitres of water</a>. One megalitre is equivalent to one million litres. </p>
<p>A typical 1,000-megawatt coal-fired power station uses enough water in one year to meet the basic water needs of nearly 700,000 people. NSW and Queensland have 18,000 megawatts of capacity.</p>
<p>Coal-fired generation uses significantly more water than other types of energy. </p>
<p>In total, coal mining and coal-fired power stations in NSW and Queensland consume 383 billion litres of freshwater a year – about 4.3% of all freshwater available in those states. </p>
<p>The value of this water is between A$770 million and A$2.49 billion (using a range of low to high security water licence costs).</p>
<p>They withdraw 2,353 billion litres of freshwater per year.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331940/original/file-20200501-42942-1iv3t0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331940/original/file-20200501-42942-1iv3t0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331940/original/file-20200501-42942-1iv3t0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331940/original/file-20200501-42942-1iv3t0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331940/original/file-20200501-42942-1iv3t0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=668&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331940/original/file-20200501-42942-1iv3t0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=668&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331940/original/file-20200501-42942-1iv3t0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=668&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided/The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The problem with large water use</h2>
<p>Coal mining is concentrated in a few regions, such as the Hunter Valley and the Bowen Basin, which are also important for farming and agriculture. </p>
<p>In NSW and Queensland, the coal industry withdraws about 30% as much water as is withdrawn for agriculture, and this is concentrated in the few regions. </p>
<p>Coal mining and power stations use water through licenses to access surface water and groundwater, and from unlicensed capturing of rainfall and runoff. </p>
<p>This can reduce stream flow and groundwater levels, which can threaten ecosystem habitats if not managed in context of other water users. Cumulative effects of multiple mines in one region can increase the risk to other water users.</p>
<h2>The need for an holistic approach</h2>
<p>A lack of available data remains a significant challenge to understanding the true impact of coal mining and coal-fired power on Australia’s water resources. </p>
<p>To improve transparency and increase trust in the coal industry, accounting for water consumed, withdrawn and impacted by coal mining should be standardised to report on full water account balances.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-governments-ungi-scheme-what-it-is-and-why-zali-steggall-wants-it-investigated-137252">The government's UNGI scheme: what it is and why Zali Steggall wants it investigated</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The coal industry should also be subject to mandatory monthly reporting and a single, open-access point of water data must be created. Comprehensive water modelling must be updated yearly and audited.</p>
<p>Coal water use must be managed in a holistic manner with the elevation of water accounting to a single government agency or common database.</p>
<p>Australia has a scarce water supply, and our environment and economy depend on the sustainable and equitable sharing of this resource.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137591/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Overton receives funding from the Australian Conservation Foundation. </span></em></p>
It’s more freshwater than what the population of the Greater Sydney region uses, but finding this out wasn’t easy.
Ian Overton, Adjunct Associate Professor, Centre for Global Food and Resources, University of Adelaide
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/128048
2019-12-10T19:01:51Z
2019-12-10T19:01:51Z
Don’t blame the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. It’s climate and economic change driving farmers out
<p>For the thousand or so farmers in Canberra in the past week venting their anger at the federal government, it’s the<a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6522046/convoy-calls-to-can-murray-darling-plan/"> Murray-Darling Basin Plan to blame</a> for destroying their livelihoods and forcing them off the land. </p>
<p>We can’t comment directly on their claims about the basin plan. But our research, looking at the years 1991 to 2011, suggests little association between the amount of water extracted from the Murray-Darling river system for irrigation and total farmer numbers. </p>
<p>That’s not to say there aren’t fewer farms in the basin now than a decade ago – there are – but our analysis points to the more important drivers being the longer-term influences of changing climate, economics and demographics.</p>
<p>Indeed our study predicts another 0.5°C increase in temperature by 2041 will halve the current number of farmers in the basin. </p>
<h2>Hostility to water recovery</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283224/original/file-20190709-51312-1bmd1r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283224/original/file-20190709-51312-1bmd1r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283224/original/file-20190709-51312-1bmd1r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283224/original/file-20190709-51312-1bmd1r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283224/original/file-20190709-51312-1bmd1r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283224/original/file-20190709-51312-1bmd1r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1054&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283224/original/file-20190709-51312-1bmd1r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1054&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283224/original/file-20190709-51312-1bmd1r9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1054&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The waters of the northern basin run to the Darling River and the waters of the southern basin run to the Murray River.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/discover-basin/landscape/geography">MDBA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over many decades state governments in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia licensed to farmers more entitlements to water than the river system could sustain. The basis of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, enacted in 2012, was to rectify this through buying back about a quarter of all water licences to ensure an environmental flow.</p>
<p>A water entitlement, despite its name, does not guarantee a licence holder a certain amount of water. That depends on the water available, and that is determined by the states, which make allocations to each type of licence based on its type of security and current conditions. </p>
<p>With drought, farmers have seen their allocations severely cut back, sometimes to nothing. And partly because they see there’s still water in the River Murray, some are <a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/australian-politics/2019/12/03/farmers-drought-protest-canberra/">very angry</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-water-crisis-has-plunged-the-nats-into-a-world-of-pain-but-they-reap-what-they-sow-128238">The water crisis has plunged the Nats into a world of pain. But they reap what they sow</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Hostility to water recovery in fact predates the plan’s enactment, to when the federal government began buying back water entitlements in 2008. The Commonwealth now holds about 20% of water entitlements across the basin. More than two-thirds of these licences were recovered between <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-resource-100517-023039">2008 and 2012</a>.</p>
<h2>Lack of correlation</h2>
<p>Our research thus covers the period of most significant water buybacks. It also covers the period of the Millennium Drought, from 2001 to 2009, when the amount of water extracted from the river system dropped by about 70%. </p>
<p>Yet we see little evidence reduced water extractions led to more farmers exiting the industry. </p>
<p>As a very broad overview of the situation, the following graph illustrates the lack of correlation between measured water extraction in the Murray-Darling Basin and decreasing farmer numbers.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306067/original/file-20191210-95111-mzuk3r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306067/original/file-20191210-95111-mzuk3r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306067/original/file-20191210-95111-mzuk3r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306067/original/file-20191210-95111-mzuk3r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306067/original/file-20191210-95111-mzuk3r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306067/original/file-20191210-95111-mzuk3r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306067/original/file-20191210-95111-mzuk3r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>Water extractions have varied significantly between years, with a big decline over the decade of the 2000s even while farmers’ need for irrigated water increased due to lack of rain. La Niña brought record rains in 2010-11. The current drought across the basin took grip from about 2017.</p>
<p>Yet farmer numbers have declined at a relative steady rate. Within the basin in the time-period we modelled, they fell from about 90,000 in 1991 to 70,000 in 2011. This can be seen as part of a wider trend, with total farmer numbers in the four basin states falling from more than 230,000 in 1976 to barely 100,000 in 2016. </p>
<p>It might be argued that because irrigated farms make up only a quarter of all farms, the overall numbers might mask a greater correlation between water extractions and decline in irrigated farms. While the specific impacts on irrigation farming in recent years warrant further study, there’s no signal in our data pointing to extractions making a discernible contribution to farmer numbers throughout the basin. </p>
<h2>Modelling farmer movement</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-019-02601-8">findings</a> are based on a specialised data set of population and agricultural census information from <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/bb8db737e2af84b8ca2571780015701e/23d04985e1786824ca25720b0002bb18!OpenDocument">statistical local areas</a> from 1991 to 2011. We used climate risk measures from 1961 onwards. </p>
<p>The following infographic shows the exit pattern of farmers by local area between 1991 and 2011.</p>
<hr>
<hr>
<p>We included as many climate, economic, farming, water and socio-demographic characteristics as possible to capture historical farmer movements and create a model able to predict movements based on variables such as average temperature. </p>
<h2>Need for a multifaceted response</h2>
<p>Overall our modelling results suggests the most significant and largest influences on farmer exit are rising temperatures and increased drought risk, followed by the economic factors that have have been reducing the proportion of the population engaged in farming for more than a century. </p>
<p>Declining commodity prices, higher unemployment and urbanisation are strongly associated with farmer exit. Urbanisation, for example, has made it attractive for farmers on city fringes to sell their land to property developers and exit the industry. </p>
<p>Research suggests irrigators in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0743016717302000?via%3Dihub">psychological distress</a> are more likely to want the basin plan suspended. Our research suggests their distress is probably not primarily driven by the federal government buying water entitlements from licence holders who sold them willingly. Water recovery and the basin plan is simply an easier focal point of blame than the longer-term trends making the farming lifestyle less viable. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/scarcity-drives-water-prices-not-government-water-recovery-new-research-124491">Scarcity drives water prices, not government water recovery: new research</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Nothing will be gained by focusing on short-term “fixes” at the cost of longer-term environmental harm. The problems facing all farmers cannot be addressed in isolation from longer-term global climate and economic trends. </p>
<p>As a society we have to decide what we value: do we want to see such a mass exodus of farmers from the land in the face of a drying climate? If not, future policy for the Basin must consider the real long-term drivers of farm exit and take a multi-faceted approach to climate change, water, land, drought and rural development.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128048/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Ann Wheeler receives funding from Australian Research Council, Meat and Livestock Australia, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research and Wine Australia. She is the President-elect of the Australasian Agricultural Resource Economics Society.</span></em></p>
Our study predicts a further 0.5°C increase in temperature by 2041 will halve the current number of farmers in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin
Sarah Ann Wheeler, Professor in Water Economics, University of Adelaide
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/111249
2019-02-12T19:15:59Z
2019-02-12T19:15:59Z
When water is scarce, we can’t afford to neglect the alternatives to desalination
<p><em>This is the second of two articles looking at the increasing reliance of Australian cities on desalination plants to supply drinking water, with less emphasis on the alternatives of water recycling and demand management. So what is the best way forward to achieve urban water security?</em> </p>
<hr>
<p>An important lesson from the <a href="http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/updates/articles/a010-southern-rainfall-decline.shtml">Millennium Drought</a> in Australia was the power of individuals to curb their own water use. This was achieved through public education campaigns and water restrictions. It was a popular topic in the media and in daily conversations before the focus turned to desalination for water security. </p>
<p>Water authorities were also expanding the use of treated wastewater – often a polite term for sewage – for “non-potable” uses. These included flushing toilets, watering gardens, and washing cars and laundry. </p>
<p>Today, the <a href="http://www.bom.gov.au/water/npr/docs/2016-17/national_performance_report_2016_17_urban_water_utilities_lowRes_update.pdf">emphasis on recycling wastewater in some locations is declining</a>. The arguments for increased water recycling appear to be falling away now that desalinated water is available. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cities-turn-to-desalination-for-water-security-but-at-what-cost-110972">Cities turn to desalination for water security, but at what cost?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This trend ignores the fact that the potential supply of recycled water increases as populations grow. </p>
<p>Today most Australian wastewater is treated then disposed into local streams, rivers, estuaries and the ocean. In Sydney, for example, the city’s big three outfalls <a href="https://www.sydneywater.com.au/SW/water-the-environment/how-we-manage-sydney-s-water/wastewater-network/wastewater-treatment-plants/index.htm">dump nearly 1 billion litres (1,000 megalitres, ML) a day into the ocean</a>.</p>
<h2>Where has recycling succeeded?</h2>
<p>Australia has several highly successful water recycling projects. </p>
<p>Sydney introduced the <a href="https://www.sydneywater.com.au/SW/education/Wastewater-recycling/Water-recycling/rouse-hill-water-recycling-plant/index.htm">Rouse Hill recycled water scheme</a> in 2001. Highly treated wastewater is piped into 32,000 suburban properties in distinct purple pipes. Each property also has the normal “potable” drinking water supply. </p>
<p>Rouse Hill is considered a world-leading urban recycling scheme. South Australia (<a href="https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/about-us/our-plans">Mawsons Lakes</a>) and Victoria (<a href="https://www.yvw.com.au/help-advice/recycled-water">Yarra Valley Water</a>, <a href="https://southeastwater.com.au/LearnAboutWater/TypesWater/Pages/RecycledWater.aspx">South East Water</a>) have similar projects. </p>
<p>Our farmers often struggle to secure water for irrigation. <a href="https://theconversation.com/damning-royal-commission-report-leaves-no-doubt-that-we-all-lose-if-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-fails-110908">Chronic water shortages across the Murray-Darling river system</a> vividly demonstrate this. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/damning-royal-commission-report-leaves-no-doubt-that-we-all-lose-if-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-fails-110908">Damning royal commission report leaves no doubt that we all lose if the Murray-Darling Basin Plan fails</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Recycled water can play an important role in agricultural schemes. There are successful examples in South Australia (<a href="http://www.recycledwater.com.au/index.php?id=84">Virginia Irrigation Scheme</a>), Victoria (<a href="https://www.melbournewater.com.au/community-and-education/about-our-water/recycled-water">Werribee</a>) and New South Wales (<a href="https://www.sydneywater.com.au/SW/water-the-environment/what-we-re-doing/current-projects/improving-our-wastewater-system/picton-water-recycling-plant/index.htm">Picton</a>). </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/it-takes-a-lot-of-water-to-feed-us-but-recycled-water-could-help-55502">It takes a lot of water to feed us, but recycled water could help</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/more-of-us-are-drinking-recycled-sewage-water-than-most-people-realise-92420">Perth has gone further by embracing water recycling</a> for urban use with plans to treat it to a drinking water standard. Part of the extensive treatment process involves <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_osmosis">reverse osmosis</a>, which is also used in desalination. The treated <a href="https://www.watercorporation.com.au/water-supply/our-water-sources/groundwater-replenishment">water is then pumped into groundwater aquifers</a> and stored. </p>
<p>This “groundwater replenishment” adds to the groundwater that contributes about half of the city’s water supply. The Water Corporation of Perth has a long-term <a href="https://www.watercorporation.com.au/water-supply/our-water-sources/recycled-water">aim to recycle 30% of its wastewater</a>. </p>
<p>Southeast Queensland, too, has developed an extensive recycled water system. The <a href="https://www.seqwater.com.au/water-supply/water-treatment/purified-recycled-water">Western Corridor Recycled Water Scheme</a> also uses reverse osmosis and can supplement drinking water supplies during droughts.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-of-us-are-drinking-recycled-sewage-water-than-most-people-realise-92420">More of us are drinking recycled sewage water than most people realise</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Demand management works too</h2>
<p>Past campaigns to get people to reduce water use achieved significant results. </p>
<p>In Sydney, <a href="http://www.sydneywater.com.au/web/groups/publicwebcontent/documents/document/zgrf/mdq3/%7Eedisp/dd_047419.pdf">water use fell steeply under water restrictions</a> (2003-2009). Since the restrictions have ended, consumption has increased under the softer “water wise rules”. Regional centres including (<a href="http://www.tamworth.nsw.gov.au/Water-and-Sewerage/Water-Restrictions/Current-Water-Restrictions/Current-Water-Restrictions">Tamworth</a>) outside of Sydney are under significant water restrictions currently with limited relief in sight. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257668/original/file-20190207-174883-1srhgp8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257668/original/file-20190207-174883-1srhgp8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257668/original/file-20190207-174883-1srhgp8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257668/original/file-20190207-174883-1srhgp8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257668/original/file-20190207-174883-1srhgp8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257668/original/file-20190207-174883-1srhgp8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257668/original/file-20190207-174883-1srhgp8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257668/original/file-20190207-174883-1srhgp8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Despite a 25% increase in Sydney’s population, total demand for drinking water remains lower than before mandatory restrictions were introduced in late 2003.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.sydneywater.com.au/web/groups/publicwebcontent/documents/document/zgrf/mdq3/~edisp/dd_047419.pdf">© Sydney Water, used with permission</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Victorian government appears to be the Australian <a href="https://marketing.conference-services.net/resources/327/2958/pdf/AM2012_0124_paper.pdf">leader in encouraging urban water conservation</a>. Across Melbourne water use per person averaged <a href="https://www.water.vic.gov.au/liveable-cities-and-towns/using-water-wisely/target-155-target-your-water-use">161 litres a day over 2016-18</a>. Victoria’s “<a href="https://www.water.vic.gov.au/liveable-cities-and-towns/using-water-wisely/t155">Target 155</a>” program, first <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/environment/sustainability/dumped-target-155-water-scheme-was-working-20110302-1bewe.html">launched in late 2008</a> and <a href="https://clearwatervic.com.au/news/victorian-government-reactivates-target-155-water-efficiency-program.php">revived in 2016</a>, aims for average use of 155 litres a day. </p>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.bom.gov.au/water/npr/docs/2016-17/02_Comparison-of_major_urban_centres.pdf">comparison of mainland capitals</a> Melbourne used the least water per residential property, 25% less than the average. Southeast Queensland residents had the second-lowest use, followed by Adelaide. Sydney, Perth and Darwin had the highest use. </p>
<p>Although Melbourne water prices are among the highest of the major cities, lower annual water use meant the city’s households had the lowest water bills in 2016-17, <a href="http://www.bom.gov.au/water/npr/">analysis by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology</a> found.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258422/original/file-20190212-174861-4illbp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258422/original/file-20190212-174861-4illbp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258422/original/file-20190212-174861-4illbp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258422/original/file-20190212-174861-4illbp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258422/original/file-20190212-174861-4illbp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258422/original/file-20190212-174861-4illbp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258422/original/file-20190212-174861-4illbp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258422/original/file-20190212-174861-4illbp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.bom.gov.au/water/npr/docs/2016-17/nationalPerformanceReport2016_17UrbanWaterUtilitiesHigherRes.pdf">Calculated from Bureau of Meteorology data</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>What impact do water prices have?</h2>
<p>Clearly, water pricing can be an effective tool to get people to reduce demand. This could partly explain why water use is lower in some cities.</p>
<p>Water bills have several components. Domestic customers pay a service fee to be connected. They then pay for the volume of water they use, plus wastewater charges on top of that. Depending on where you live, you might be charged a flat rate, or a rate that increases as you use more water.</p>
<p>The chart below shows the pricing range in our major cities.</p>
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<p><iframe id="xIJQR" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/xIJQR/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
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<p>Flat charges for water per kilolitre (where a kL equals 1,000 litres) apply in Sydney (<a href="https://www.sydneywater.com.au/SW/accounts-billing/understanding-your-bill/prices-for-your-home/index.htm">$2.08/kL)</a>), Darwin (<a href="https://www.powerwater.com.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/165198/Water,_sewerage_and_power_tariffs_-_Effective_from_1_July_2018.pdf">$1.95/kL</a>) and Hobart (<a href="https://www.taswater.com.au/Your-Account/Water-and-Sewerage-Charges">$1.06/kL</a>. </p>
<p>However, most water authorities charge low water users a cheaper rate, and increased prices apply for higher consumption. The most expensive water in Australia is for Canberra residents – <a href="https://www.iconwater.com.au/about/our-pricing.aspx">$4.88</a> for each kL customers use over 50kL per quarter. The cheapest water is Hobart (<a href="https://www.taswater.com.au/Your-Account/Water-and-Sewerage-Charges">$1.06/kL</a>).</p>
<p>Higher fees for higher residential consumption are charged in Canberra, Perth, Southeast Queensland, across South Australia and in Melbourne. In effect, most major water providers penalise high-water-using customers. This creates an incentive to use less. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.yvw.com.au/help-advice/help-my-account/understand-my-bill/fees-and-charges">Yarra Valley Water customers in Melbourne</a> using less than 440 litres a day pay $2.64/kL. From 441-880L/day they are charged $3.11/kL. For more than 881L/day they pay $4.62/kL – 75% more than the lowest rate.</p>
<h2>Is recycled water getting priced out of business?</h2>
<p>Recycling water <a href="http://www.sydneywater.com.au/web/groups/publicwebcontent/documents/document/zgrf/mdu3/%7Eedisp/dd_057020.pdf">may not be viable for Sydney Water</a>. It can cost over $5 per 1kL to produce, but the state pricing regulator, <a href="https://www.ipart.nsw.gov.au/Home/Industries/Water/Setting-water-prices/Current-water-prices">IPART</a>, sets the cost of recycled water to Sydney customers at <a href="http://www.sydneywater.com.au/SW/accounts-billing/understanding-your-bill/our-prices/index.htm">just under $2 per kL</a>. That’s probably well below the cost of production. </p>
<p>Recycled water, where available, is a little bit more expensive ($2.12/kL) in South Australia. </p>
<p>Subsidies are probably essential for future large recycling schemes. This was the case for a 2017 plan to expand the Virginia Irrigation Scheme. South Australia <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-10/recycled-water-extension-proposed-in-adelaides-north/8430522">sought 30% of the capital funding</a> from the Commonwealth. </p>
<h2>Where to from here?</h2>
<p>Much of southern Australia is facing increasing water stress and <a href="http://www.bom.gov.au/water/dashboards/#/water-storages/summary/state">capital city water supplies are falling</a>. Expensive desalination plants are gearing up to supply more water. Will they insulate urban residents from the disruption many others are feeling in drought-affected inland and regional locations? Should we be increasing the capacity of our desalination plants? </p>
<p>We recommend that urban Australia should make further use of recycled water. This will also reduce the environmental impact of disposing wastewater in our rivers, estuaries and ocean. All new developments should have recycled water made available, saving our precious potable water for human consumption. </p>
<p>Water conservation should be given the highest priority. Pricing of water that encourages recycling and water conservation should be a national priority. </p>
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<p>
<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/this-is-what-australias-growing-cities-need-to-do-to-avoid-running-dry-86301">This is what Australia's growing cities need to do to avoid running dry</a>
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<p><em>You can read the first article, on cities’ increasing reliance on desalination, <a href="http://theconversation.com/cities-turn-to-desalination-for-water-security-but-at-what-cost-110972">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111249/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Cities relied entirely on conserving and recycling water to get through the last big drought. We now have desalination plants, but getting the most out of our water reserves still makes sense.
Ian A. Wright, Associate Professor in Environmental Science, Western Sydney University
Jason Reynolds, Senior Lecturer, Western Sydney University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/110908
2019-02-01T02:24:20Z
2019-02-01T02:24:20Z
Damning royal commission report leaves no doubt that we all lose if the Murray-Darling Basin Plan fails
<p>In the wake of revelations of water theft, fish kills, and towns running out of water, the South Australian Royal Commission into the Murray-Darling Basin has <a href="https://www.mdbrc.sa.gov.au/">reported</a> that the Basin Plan must be strengthened if there is to be any hope of saving the river system, and the communities along it, from a bleak future.</p>
<p>Evidence uncovered by the Royal Commission showed systemic failures in the implementation of the <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/basin-plan/plan-murray-darling-basin">Murray-Darling Basin Plan</a>. The damning report must trigger action by all governments and bodies involved in managing the basin. </p>
<p>The Basin Plan was adopted in 2012 to address overallocation of water to irrigated farming at the expense of the environment, river towns, Traditional Owners, and the pastoral and tourism industries. </p>
<p>The Commission has made 111 findings and 44 recommendations that accuse federal agencies of maladministration, and challenge key policies that were pursued in implementing the plan.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/aboriginal-voices-are-missing-from-the-murray-darling-basin-crisis-110769">Aboriginal voices are missing from the Murray-Darling Basin crisis</a>
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<h2>What did the report find?</h2>
<p>The commission found that the Basin Plan breached <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2017C00151">federal water laws</a> by applying a “triple bottom line” trade-off of environmental and socioeconomic values, rather than prioritising environmental sustainability and then optimising socio-economic outcomes. </p>
<p>I and my colleagues in the <a href="http://wentworthgroup.org/">Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists</a> provided evidence to the commission from our <a href="http://wentworthgroup.org/2017/11/review-of-water-reform-in-the-murray-darling-basin/2017/">independent assessment</a> of the Basin Plan in 2017, which the commission’s findings reflect. </p>
<p>Contrary to current government practices, the Commission recommendations include: </p>
<ul>
<li>prioritising environmental sustainability</li>
<li>basing the plan on transparent science</li>
<li>acquiring more water for the environment through direct purchase from farmers</li>
<li>meeting the water needs of <a href="https://theconversation.com/aboriginal-voices-are-missing-from-the-murray-darling-basin-crisis-110769">the Basin’s 40 Indigenous nations</a></li>
<li>ensuring that state governments produce competent <a href="http://wentworthgroup.org/2018/11/wrp-accreditation-criteria/2018/">subsidiary plans</a> and comply with agreements to <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/publications/mdba-reports/constraints-management-strategy">remove constraints</a> to inundating floodplain wetlands</li>
<li>addressing the impacts of climate change</li>
<li>improving monitoring and compliance of Basin Plan implementation. </li>
</ul>
<h2>Resilience in decline</h2>
<p>The Murray-Darling Basin is not just a food bowl. It is a living ecosystem that depends on interconnected natural resources. It also underpins the livelihoods of 2.6 million people and agricultural production worth more than <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/basin-plan/plan-murray-darling-basin">A$24 billion</a>.</p>
<p>The continued health of the basin and its economy depends on a healthy river – which in turns means healthy water flows. Like much of Australia, the Murray-Darling Basin is subject to periods of “droughts and flooding rains”. But over the past century the extraction of water, especially for irrigation, has reduced river flows to a point at which the natural system can no longer recover from these extremes.</p>
<p>That lack of resilience is evidenced by the current <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-darling-river-is-simply-not-supposed-to-dry-out-even-in-drought-109880">Darling River fish kills</a>. More broadly, overextraction risks the health of the entire basin, and its capacity to sustain productive regional economies for future generations.</p>
<p>From the perspective of the Wentworth Group, we support the commission’s main recommendations, including increasing pressure on recalcitrant state governments to responsibly deliver their elements of the plan, and to refocus on the health of the river. </p>
<p>We particularly support recommendations related to the use of the best available science in decision-making, including for managing <a href="https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84882238753&doi=10.1002%2fwcc.230&origin=inward&txGid=9e93db24280752ba77a3e187f1c4c142">declining water availability under a changing climate</a>. </p>
<p>We welcome the recommendation to reassess the sustainable levels of water extraction so as to comply with the Commonwealth Water Act. These must be constructed with a primary focus on the environment. </p>
<p>In line with this, the <a href="http://wentworthgroup.org/2018/01/advice-on-basin-plan-amendment-instrument-2017/2018/">70 billion litre reduction in environmental water</a> from the northern basin adopted by parliament in 2018 should be immediately repealed. So should the ban on direct buyback of water from farmers for the environment. </p>
<p>We also recognise that the Basin Plan’s water recovery target is insufficient to restore health to the environment and prevent further damage, and would welcome an increase in the target above 3,200 billion litres.</p>
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<p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-good-plan-to-help-darling-river-fish-recover-exists-so-lets-get-on-with-it-110168">A good plan to help Darling River fish recover exists, so let's get on with it</a>
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<p>South Australian Premier Steven Marshall has taken a welcome first step in calling for a Council of Australian Governments meeting to discuss the commission’s findings. Our governments need to avoid the temptation to legislate away the politically inconvenient failings exposed by the commission, and instead act constructively and implement its recommendations. </p>
<p>This is not only a challenge for the current conservative federal government. The Labor side of politics needs to address its legacy in establishing the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and the Basin Plan, as well as the Victorian government’s role in frustrating the plan’s implementation by failing to remove constraints to environmental water flows. </p>
<p>Now, more than ever, we need strong leadership. If the Murray-Darling Basin Plan fails, we all lose.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110908/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jamie Pittock received funding for research in the Basin from the former National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility. He is a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and a scientific adviser to WWF Australia.</span></em></p>
The Murray-Darling is not just a food bowl, yet the South Australian Royal Commission has found the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is failing its mission to protect the environment as well as irrigators.
Jamie Pittock, Professor, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/96418
2018-05-16T20:16:22Z
2018-05-16T20:16:22Z
What happens to small towns whose water becomes big business for bottled brands?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219155/original/file-20180516-155607-1xed2af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The more the market is willing to pay, the harder it is to regulate water use.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Groundwater being pumped from a highland aquifer, only to be whisked away in tankers and sold in little plastic bottles by a multinational corporation – it’s a difficult concept for a small farming town to swallow. </p>
<p>Just ask the residents of Stanley, Victoria, whose four-year court battle to stop a farmer bottling local groundwater for Japanese beverage giant Asahi <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/30/victorian-town-ordered-to-pay-90000-after-losing-bottled-water-battle-with-farmer">ended in failure last month</a>. They were left with a <a href="https://jade.io/article/582193?at.hl=stanley+pastoral">A$90,000 bill for legal costs</a>.</p>
<p>Locals have clashed with the bottled water industry in many parts of the world, including the <a href="http://www.mlive.com/expo/erry-2018/04/c4f53fc3a99620/10_things_to_know_about_nestle.html">United States</a> and <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/nestle-continues-to-extract-water-from-ontario-town-despite-severe-drought-activists/article31480345/">Canada</a>, and perhaps most famously in the French spa town of Vittel, where residents have <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/26/french-town-vittel-suffering-water-shortages-nestle-accused/">accused</a> Nestlé of selling so much of their water to the rest of the world that they barely have enough left for themselves. </p>
<p>These conflicts demonstrate the challenge of balancing the competing demands on water drawn from underground. Compared with surface water, which is less tricky to monitor, groundwater is far harder to govern.</p>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hidden-depths-why-groundwater-is-our-most-important-water-source-91484">Hidden depths: why groundwater is our most important water source</a>
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<p>Under the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2013Q00005/">Australian Constitution</a>, water is primarily governed by the states. In Victoria, groundwater in high-use areas is managed using groundwater management plans under the Water Act, and water for commercial or irrigation purposes requires a take and use licence. This licence specifies the maximum volume of water a user is allowed to divert each year and under what conditions - what is often called an ‘entitlement’. </p>
<p>If a licence-holder wants to amend their licence, they need to apply to their regional water corporation.</p>
<p>It was one such application that triggered the dispute in Stanley. Local farmer Tim Carey applied to change the source of 19 million litres of his existing licence from surface water to groundwater, and from agricultural to commercial purposes. This would allow him to truck the water to a bottling plant run by Mountain H2O, owned by Asahi. </p>
<p>The changes were approved by Goulburn-Murray Water under the local <a href="https://www.g-mwater.com.au/downloads/gmw/Groundwater/Upper_Ovens_WSPA/TATDOC-_3249685-v2-WATER_MANAGEMENT_PLAN_FOR_THE_UPPER_OVENS_RIVER_WSPA_-_FINAL_-_AUGUST_2011.pdf">water management plan</a>. Stanley’s residents were <a href="https://www.thecitizen.org.au/articles/battle-stanleys-water">concerned about the impact</a> on irrigation and the environment, and tried to challenge Carey’s operation under local planning laws. But the court said that his approved water licence meant he didn’t need planning approval too. With no clear legal options now left for local residents, that may well prove to be the final say on the matter.</p>
<h2>How did this happen?</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, before about 1980, water entitlements were given away like kittens by various water agencies. As a result, in some areas, users are entitled to much more water than they actually use - sometimes more than is sustainable. And politics generally precludes any intervention to amend these inflated entitlements once the licence-holders have become used to having them.</p>
<p>Extensive droughts in the late 1970s and early 1980s, combined with the Darling River’s <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/discover-basin">striking algal bloom in the early 1990s</a>, catapulted the importance of effective water management into the public consciousness.</p>
<p>In 1997, this resulted in “the cap” – limits on surface water diversions in the Murray-Darling Basin. However, the cap didn’t limit groundwater extractions, which then increased dramatically. The regulation of groundwater, memorably described in an 1861 court case as too “<a href="https://www.uakron.edu/dotAsset/507139e2-063a-40ea-9a5d-1177dfbbd88d.pdf">secret, occult and concealed</a>” to even attempt, has long lagged behind that of surface water. </p>
<p>It wasn’t until the Millennium Drought (2000-09), with the advent of the <a href="http://www.agriculture.gov.au/water/policy/nwi">National Water Initiative</a> and the federal <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/C2007A00137">Water Act 2007</a> that Australian groundwater management underwent significant, large-scale reform. The main thrusts of the reforms were the development of legal and planning frameworks to achieve sustainable management of surface and groundwater, and the restructuring of water markets to be nationally compatible. </p>
<p>The new water governance regime created under the federal Water Act, under which the Commonwealth assumed important powers over waters in the Murray-Darling Basin, allows for <a href="https://jade.io/article/568810/section/728267?at.hl=basin+plan">groundwater markets</a> and new limits on groundwater withdrawals. Groundwater trading is generally constrained by rules that require the “to” and “from” locations to be hydrologically connected to one another.</p>
<p>Stanley’s groundwater falls within a <a href="https://data.gov.au/dataset/groundwater-sdl-resource-units/resource/99ece5d1-c136-4d46-85b9-92b9cb5b7406">new mega-planning area</a> that covers great swathes of northern Victoria. The new management plan for this area is due at the end of the year, but is currently <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/sites/default/files/pubs/WRP-report-2018-Jan.pdf">only 30% complete</a>.</p>
<p>Even if the plan is finished on time, groundwater sustainability in regions like the Ovens might elude us. Limits on water extraction are generally based on the entitlements in the area. But as current groundwater usage is less than those entitlements, “sleeper” licences can still be activated. During shortages, when the economic value of water peaks, people can trade water that would otherwise remain unused. In some management regions, the total entitlement volume is roughly double or more than the actual usage. </p>
<p>The Stanley case shows how communities can mobilise when groundwater moves from one use to another. If new plans further encourage groundwater markets, we should brace ourselves for more of the same – although it is unclear whether other communities would enjoy any more legal success than the people of Stanley.</p>
<h2>What are management decisions based on?</h2>
<p>High-profile cases like Stanley’s highlight the need for a robust scientific basis for licensing decisions. Communities facing change will have a difficult time accepting decisions that are not supported by rigorous science.</p>
<p>Unfortunately when it comes to groundwater, it’s far from straightforward to work out how much water is down there and where it goes. An expert hydrogeologist retained by Stanley’s residents argued that the modelling used to estimate the impact of the bottled water extractions was <a href="http://stanleyvictoria.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Dahlhaus_Expert_Witness_Report_29-09-2015.compressed.pdf">very simplistic</a>. Mapping groundwater with an overly simplistic model is akin to using an identikit sketch of a smiley face to catch a criminal. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-worlds-biggest-source-of-freshwater-is-beneath-your-feet-53874">The world's biggest source of freshwater is beneath your feet</a>
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<p>But water corporations have finite resources, and if we want in-depth analysis, then we need to invest in management planning tools such as drilling programs and numerical groundwater models supported by monitoring data and surveys of groundwater-dependent ecosystems. This sort of analysis is time-consuming, expensive and currently a political stretch. Governments only tend to spend serious money on groundwater investigations once people start running out of water.</p>
<p>However, if we want to get groundwater licensing right, it needs to be scientifically robust, environmentally sustainable, and procedurally fair.<br>
As Stanley’s residents discovered, there might be no second chance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96418/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Kathryn White receives funding from Department of Land, Water, Environment and Planning, The Bureau of Meteorology and Northern Territory Power and Water.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Nelson receives funding from the Australian Research Council and is a Board member of Bush Heritage Australia.</span></em></p>
Residents of a small Victorian town realised that delicious water can be a curse as well as a blessing, when they lost a legal battle to stop a local farmer shipping groundwater to a nearby bottling plant.
Emma Kathryn White, PhD Candidate, Infrastructure Engineering, The University of Melbourne
Rebecca Louise Nelson, Senior Lecturer in Law, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/91484
2018-02-09T01:44:34Z
2018-02-09T01:44:34Z
Hidden depths: why groundwater is our most important water source
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205433/original/file-20180208-74482-b7wl9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Deep dive: water flows from a bore in Birdsville, Queensland.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABore_Water_Outlet_in_Birdsville_-_panoramio.jpg">Lobster1/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/cape-town-is-almost-out-of-water-could-australian-cities-suffer-the-same-fate-90933">Vivid scenes</a> of worried Cape Town residents clutching empty water vessels in long snaking queues are ricocheting around the globe. Everyone is asking, “How did this happen?” Or, more precisely, “Can it happen in my city?” The importance of effective water management has been shoved, blinking, into the limelight.</p>
<p>In Australia we’re watching somewhat nervously, grateful to have been spared the same fate – for now, at least. <a href="https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/how-to-prevent-cities-from-drying-up">Experts tell us</a> that the key is “water divestment” – that is, don’t put all your eggs in one basket (or, perhaps more appropriately, don’t get all your water from the same tap). </p>
<p>Perth is held up as a shining example of Australia’s success in water divestment. The city now relies partly on <a href="https://www.watercorporation.com.au/water-supply/our-water-sources/desalination/perth-seawater-desalination-plant">desalination</a> and crucially gets <a href="http://www.bom.gov.au/water/nwa/2016/perth/index.shtml">almost 70% of its supply from groundwater</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-worlds-biggest-source-of-freshwater-is-beneath-your-feet-53874">The world's biggest source of freshwater is beneath your feet</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Groundwater, the great salvation of parched cities and agricultural development, is the world’s largest freshwater resource. The volume of fresh water in all the world’s lakes, rivers and swamps adds up to <a href="https://water.usgs.gov/edu/earthhowmuch.html">less than 1%</a> of that of fresh groundwater – like putting a perfume bottle next to a ten-litre bucket. </p>
<p>What’s more, because it’s underground, it is buffered somewhat from a fickle climate and often used to maintain or supplement supply during times of drought. </p>
<p>Yet caution is required when developing groundwater. Sinking wells everywhere, Beverley Hillbillies style, is unwise. Instead, robust groundwater management is required – defining clearly what we want to achieve and what are we prepared to lose to get it.</p>
<p>Despite the common perception of its abundance, groundwater is not inexhaustible. Its management is fraught with minefields greater and more enigmatic than those of surface waters. It is, after all, much easier to spot when a reservoir is about to run dry than a subterranean aquifer.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205431/original/file-20180208-74509-w0c7rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205431/original/file-20180208-74509-w0c7rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205431/original/file-20180208-74509-w0c7rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1581&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205431/original/file-20180208-74509-w0c7rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205431/original/file-20180208-74509-w0c7rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1581&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205431/original/file-20180208-74509-w0c7rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1987&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205431/original/file-20180208-74509-w0c7rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1987&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205431/original/file-20180208-74509-w0c7rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1987&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Subsidence can be surprisingly rapid, as in the case of this example in California’s San Joaquin Valley.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASanJoaquinDrop.jpg">USGS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Only when aquifer depletion is already quite advanced do we begin to see the tell-tale signs at the surface: <a href="https://ca.water.usgs.gov/land_subsidence/">metres and metres of subsidence</a>, huge cracks in roads, and dried-up wetlands clogged with dead trees and dried-out bird carcasses. </p>
<p>For the most part, however, groundwater remains out of sight, hidden beneath many metres of soil and rock. We only remember it is there when something goes wrong, such as a drought, at which point people begin raving about groundwater, location, yield, salinity, stygofauna – wait, what?</p>
<p>Actually hardly anyone cares about stygofauna; most people have never heard of these tiny subterranean creatures, and you will certainly never see one as a state emblem. <a href="https://www.friendsofmoundsprings.org.au/">Mound springs</a>? What are they? Clearly being underground has left groundwater with an image problem.</p>
<p>There was much <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-broken-81613">media coverage</a> of water theft from the Murray River, with broadcast journalists reporting breathlessly from tinnies, and dramatic footage of huge pumps sucking swirling brown water from a sluggish river. Film of groundwater pumps sedately slurping water is much harder to get, because bores tend to be on private property, often hidden inside little tin shacks and kind of boring, really. </p>
<p>Groundwater just doesn’t capture the public imagination. Great reservoirs and rivers are evocative of wilderness and adventure; they almost make you want to build a little raft and float lazily away, Huck Finn style. But the thing is, groundwater feeds many great rivers, supplying base-flow, so when we suck water out of wells, in many instances we may as well be sucking out of rivers. </p>
<p>Despite this connectivity, in many regions groundwater and surface water are managed separately. This is akin to treating to your left hand as a separate entity to your right. Regulation of groundwater lags behind that of surface water and, in many parts of the world including the United States, China, India and Australia, groundwater is overexploited and pumped prolifically, leading to severe social and environmental impacts.</p>
<p>Mound springs support unique and endemic ecosystems and bubbling clear cold water, a welcome sight for dusty travellers. And as for the aforementioned <a href="https://www.dpaw.wa.gov.au/about-us/science-and-research/wetlands-conservation-research/204-styogfauna">stygofauna</a>, well, what could be cooler than a blind cave eel?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/squeezed-by-gravity-how-tides-affect-the-groundwater-under-our-feet-74928">Squeezed by gravity: how tides affect the groundwater under our feet</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Groundwater will become increasingly important as a water source as we grapple with growing cities and burgeoning populations, not to mention climate change, which is <a href="https://publications.csiro.au/rpr/pub?pid=csiro:EP127070">projected to reduce rainfall across eastern Australia</a>.</p>
<p>It is crucial that we ensure our groundwater management is effective and robust in the face of drought. It is no longer enough just to write management plans; we must put them to the test by running our groundwater models through a range of future climate and management frequency scenarios. We need increased investment in groundwater management planning, and for management to be conducted in conjunction with surface water management. </p>
<p>With many cities’ water supplies drying up before our eyes, we also need to remember to think about the water we cannot see.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91484/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Kathryn White receives funding from Department of Land, Water, Environment and Planning, The Bureau of Meteorology and Northern Territory Power and Water. </span></em></p>
Groundwater is out of sight, but it shouldn’t be out of mind. As cities struggle to cope with drought, we should remember that our largest stocks of water are hidden deep underground.
Emma Kathryn White, PhD Candidate, Infrastructure Engineering, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/91253
2018-02-06T13:46:07Z
2018-02-06T13:46:07Z
South Africa needs good water management - not new water laws
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205036/original/file-20180206-14100-sohw6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Instead of revising South Africa's water law, the country should prioritise water management.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Because water is shared by everyone, there have to be some rules to govern the way it is used. But it’s a difficult resource and when things go wrong, the temptation is to blame the unpredictable water – or the rules. </p>
<p>In fact, the problem is usually neither the water nor the rules, but the people concerned.</p>
<p>When politicians in trouble say that the rules need to be changed, be wary. Experience around the world is that, more often than not, water laws <a href="https://www.oecd.org/cfe/regional-policy/OECD-Principles-on-Water-Governance-brochure.pdf">aren’t the problem</a>. They’re simply not implemented. So <a href="http://www.polity.org.za/article/sa-nomvula-mokonyane-address-by-minister-of-water-and-sanitation-at-the-launch-of-the-water-infrastructure-investment-summit-park-hyatt-rosebank-06112017-2017-11-07">proposals</a> from South Africa’s minister of Water Affairs Nomvula Mokonyane to revise the two laws that underpin South Africa’s water security are worrying. South Africans need to ask whether the problems are with the laws or with her department’s administration of them. </p>
<p>The two laws are the 1998 <a href="http://www.dwaf.gov.za/Documents/Legislature/nw_act/NWA.htm">National Water Act</a> and the <a href="http://www.dwaf.gov.za/Documents/Legislature/a108-97.pdf">1997 Water Services Act</a>. The Water Act sets out how South Africa should cope with the vagaries of the country’s climate and the demands of a growing population. It stipulates what different tiers of government and water users should do and what procedures should be used to address particular problems. The Water Services act regulates municipal water supply and sanitation services. </p>
<p>So what happens when there is no longer enough water to go around or to meet new needs? The current laws set out technical and administrative processes that need to be followed if there’s no longer enough water to go around, or if there isn’t enough to meet new needs. These allow water to be reallocated between existing users and those seeking water for the first time.</p>
<p>The law also gives priority to leaving enough water in rivers to sustain the environment and establishes procedures for doing that.</p>
<p>And the law instructs the minister to monitor and make public both the availability of water and the evolving uses of water. Where shortages loom, the law obliges her to establish a strategy to show how this will be dealt with.</p>
<p>Just because there is a law on the statute books doesn’t mean that it will be implemented. As Cape Town has shown, a few years of good rainfall allowed people to believe that their water supply was adequate. And half of South Africa’s major metros would be at risk if there was a serious multi-year drought. Many water courses are polluted by poorly managed wastewater plants as well as unlicensed and unsupervised mining operations. In some places, poor farmers who want to irrigate their land can’t get a licence because the water is “all allocated”.</p>
<p>History teaches us that this is a dangerous moment. </p>
<h2>Civilisations have fallen</h2>
<p>Great civilisations in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Rome, China and Central America were built on rigorously enforced <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?hl=en&lr=&id=bhBfOqCIzLIC&oi=fnd&pg=PR19&dq=caponera+principles+of+water+law&ots=B-uWZYmH6t&sig=PEVcJimgLvUmEU72J-VBk4EycBQ#v=onepage&q=caponera%20principles%20of%20water%20law&f=false">water management rules</a>. </p>
<p>In Mesopotamia, if a neighbour’s field was flooded because you did not maintain your canal, you replaced his crop or your household goods were sold. The Egyptians were less charitable; allowing dykes to deteriorate could be punished by death. Early Hindu law gave Indian kings the duty of monitoring public waters – and the right to execute by drowning anyone who broke a dam and caused water to be lost. </p>
<p>Chinese administrations ensured that water users maintained their infrastructure and only used water for authorised purposes. The Roman Water Commission used double entry bookkeeping, with one column for water sources and availability, another for water uses, including public purposes as well as private concessions. When those concessions ended, the water was returned to the commission for reallocation.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205037/original/file-20180206-14104-9wd85i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205037/original/file-20180206-14104-9wd85i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205037/original/file-20180206-14104-9wd85i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205037/original/file-20180206-14104-9wd85i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205037/original/file-20180206-14104-9wd85i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205037/original/file-20180206-14104-9wd85i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205037/original/file-20180206-14104-9wd85i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205037/original/file-20180206-14104-9wd85i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">South Africa’s minister of Water Affairs Nomvula Mokonyane.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/governmentza/27251368539/in/photolist-Hw7orH-qp3ywc-dLyNy1-orjds6-qSCZvp-dLyNzh-dLyNys-dLyNMb-rkKDNN-kpUueX-dLtgGR-kaUtDv-qC1xP2-dLtgGr-dU1mPs-fc6obd-22sP9zV-dLyNNf-dTUK7g-dLtgKR-dU1n9q-opwUzY-dLth2Z-opyq5F-dUxFrE-o84Dto-dRiQ6P-qUiP78-hQmmxm-dUs5tr-dLtgWi-dLyNH3-dLtgMK-oph8JH-hQkHBt-dUxFrS-dLyNQf-dRiD4R-oFprk3-dLtgY4-dLyNTq-oph8o2-dJQsK3-o85QK6-dUxFrG-dRpcpy-dUxFtf-dUs5tz-ejoKgG-22sP9Tv">Flickr/GovernmentZA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many historians believe that failures of water administration were one cause of the collapse of a number of early civilisations. It should be a warning. But there shouldn’t be impatience. It can take many years for new water laws to come into effect. Europe introduced its <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/water-framework/index_en.html">Water Framework Directive in 2000</a>. We will only know in 2027 whether it has reached its initial objectives. Countries like Mexico introduced a succession of new laws over the past few decades, not allowing time to get one right before trying <a href="http://www.oecd.org/cfe/regional-policy/makingwaterreformhappeninmexico.htm">to introduce something new</a>.</p>
<p>This is the larger problem facing South Africa. Rather than get on with the complicated and often thankless task of managing water resources and regulating water services, ministers have been finding excuses to avoid getting down to business.</p>
<h2>Complicated business</h2>
<p>Some parts of water law are difficult. It may seem simple to allocate water between competing users, but it requires a great deal of work to know how much water is available and how much water is currently being used, by whom. Only then can a decision be made as to whether new users can just take water from existing sources or whether existing uses need to be curtailed.</p>
<p>Similarly, water licences for mines and wastewater treatment plants must protect the quality of the rivers and streams which they may pollute. To set the conditions, officials must know how much water is flowing in the streams (the higher the flow, the more pollutants they can absorb without damage). They also need to know how much pollution is coming from other sources. Local communities must make choices about the balance between pristine water, economic activity and social needs.</p>
<p>Water management is about setting up organisations that can work with the resource and its users. The new institutions needed are provided for in existing legislation. Despite a great deal of talk, they have not yet been set up.</p>
<p>Even routine parts of the existing law have not been complied with. For example, the National Water Act requires <a href="http://www.dwaf.gov.za/Documents/Legislature/nw_act/NWA.htm">the minister to deliver</a>, a <a href="http://www.dwa.gov.za/nwrs/">National Water Resource Strategy</a> every five years. It’s meant to set out how much water is available in the country and how much is being used. But this basic responsibility has not been complied with. </p>
<p>So rather than revise the water law, the priority must be to do the spade work of water management: collect and interpret the data, ensure that administrative systems work, and enforce the rules. </p>
<p>Until these basics are done, it is almost certainly premature to talk of revising the law – unless, that is, the intention is to distract from the failure to do the basic work in the first place.</p>
<p><em>This article was co-authored with Stefano Burchi and Advocate Robyn Stein, former visiting Professor at Wits University, Johannesburg. Burchi is Chairman of the International Association of Water Law and was previously chief of the UN FAO’s Development Law Service. Stein is an attorney and member of the Water Law Committee of the International Bar Association’s Natural Resources Section, the Environmental Law Association and is a Trustee of the Endangered Wildlife Trust and is currently a director of ENSAfrica.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91253/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mike Muller has received funding from the Water Research Commission, the African Development Bank, the European Centre for Development Policy Management and the United Nations University Institute for Development Economics Research for work related to this article. He is an active member of the South African Institute of Civil Engineers and Academy of Engineers which engage on sectoral policy matters.</span></em></p>
South Africa has good water laws. So why does the minister want to change them?
Mike Muller, Visiting Adjunct Professor, University of the Witwatersrand
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/90951
2018-02-05T14:20:51Z
2018-02-05T14:20:51Z
Why treating water scarcity as a security issue is a bad idea
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204583/original/file-20180202-162077-e1tfhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=38%2C118%2C1801%2C1084&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Helen Zille, the Premier of the Western Cape in South Africa, has made two startling claims about the <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-driving-cape-towns-water-insecurity-and-what-can-be-done-about-it-81845">water crisis</a> in the province. She says there will be anarchy when the taps run dry, and that normal policing will be <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2018-01-22-from-the-inside-the-countdown-to-day-zero/#.WnLXMq6Wbcs">inadequate</a>. </p>
<p>She stated this as fact. Neither claim has any basis in truth. But they reflect an <a href="https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/87/2/993/2235528">“elite panic”</a>: society’s elite’s fear of social disorder. We see this when public officials and the media draw on stereotypes of public panic and disorder, or, in Zille’s words, “anarchy”. </p>
<p>Research <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020808075321.htm">shows</a> that mass hysteria and lawlessness during disasters is actually remarkably rare. Yet elite panic can lead to security taking priority over public safety. Preventing criminal activity is then treated as more important than protecting people from harm.</p>
<p>The more society’s response leans towards security, the closer the situation gets to “securitisation”. In the field of security studies, securitisation is the notion that nothing is a threat until someone <a href="http://www.e-ir.info/2011/10/09/does-security-exist-outside-of-the-speech-act/">says</a> it is. This “framing” happens in many ways, including the words politicians choose to describe a situation. A militarised response, for example, can be triggered by an issue being portrayed as a threat so severe that it requires extraordinary measures beyond normal political processes. </p>
<p>Zille’s characterisation of the water crisis is a classic example of this process. A major part of her communication about the preparation for Day Zero has been about securing the province and outlining the police and military strategy <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2018-01-24-zille-police-army-will-help-secure-day-zero-water-distribution-points">to prevent criminal activity</a>.</p>
<p>This approach gets in the way of more constructive responses to disaster. It can even trigger the very disorder it seeks to avoid. In other words, a self-fulfilling prophecy occurs which has serious consequences for a community and the humanitarian response to a disaster.</p>
<h2>False framing</h2>
<p>According to Zille, the day Cape Town runs out of water is a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFiPfLGNu3g">“disaster of disasters”</a>. It</p>
<blockquote>
<p>exceeds anything a major City has had to face anywhere in the world since the <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2018-01-22-from-the-inside-the-countdown-to-day-zero/#.WnLXMq6Wbcs">Second World War or 9/11</a>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The panic in her tone, and her choice of examples, are telling. The Second World War and 9/11 were not natural disasters, they were consequences of war and terrorism. By invoking these national security events she frames the threat as one that needs to be managed using extraordinary means. </p>
<p>Zille imagines</p>
<blockquote>
<p>many other foreseeable crises associated with dry taps, such as conflict over access to water, theft of water, and other criminal acts associated with water, not to mention the outbreak of disease.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She has asked President Jacob Zuma to declare a national state of disaster. It would enable the country’s intelligence agencies, the South African National Defence Force and the South African Police Service to make a shared plan with the province and the private sector</p>
<blockquote>
<p>to distribute water, defend storage facilities, deal with potential outbreaks of disease, and keep the peace.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Military and disaster</h2>
<p>It’s not uncommon for the military to get involved in disaster relief. During the Fukushima/Daichi disaster following the tsunami that struck Japan in 2011, the Japanese military played a critical role in providing aid and relief. But they were not there to <a href="http://fukushimaontheglobe.com/the-earthquake-and-the-nuclear-accident/whats-happened/the-japan-us-military-response">defend or guard</a> people and property.</p>
<p>The South African National Defence Force played a similar role during <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/mozambique/mozambique-natural-disasters-floods">serious floods in Mozambique</a> in 2000, and again during flooding <a href="http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=arti%20cle&id=37789:job-done-in-mozambique-sandf-safely-back-home&catid=111:sa-defence&Itemid=242">in 2015</a>. </p>
<p>But Zille’s intention to involve the military and State Security Agency in Cape Town’s disaster management is different. </p>
<p>They won’t be there in a humanitarian capacity, such as setting up infrastructure or distributing water, but to guard against anarchy. Her aim is to legitimise security measures, or, more bluntly, the use of force. </p>
<p>Her approach should be resisted.</p>
<h2>Lessons from Hurricane Katrina</h2>
<p>Author and humanitarian worker Malka Older, who studied the disaster response in the US to <a href="http://www.revue-rita.com/traitdunion9/securitization-of-disaster-response-in-the-united-states-the-case-of-hurricane-katrina-2005.html">Hurricane Katrina in 2005</a>, found that an obsession with security was legitimised through unsupported claims of widespread violence and looting.</p>
<p>She writes: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The story of Hurricane Katrina is one of security overtaking and overriding disaster management from preparedness through response.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She concludes that the shift from safety to security – where armed guards were sent to shelters and distribution points – actually reduced the city’s capacity to respond to the disaster. The security emphasis tied up human resources. And the focus turned away from helping those affected by the flooding to controlling them. </p>
<p>On top of this, the securitised response reflected prejudices about race and class. Jamelle Bouie, chief political correspondent for Slate Magazine and a political analyst for CBS News, has <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/08/hurricane_katrina_10th_anniversary_how_the_black_lives_matter_movement_was.html">argued that</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Black collective memory of Hurricane Katrina, as much as anything else, informs the present movement against police violence, ‘Black Lives Matter.’</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Thinking differently</h2>
<p>Water scarcity, like any issue, can be thought of in several ways. </p>
<p>It can be imagined as a hardship that many Capetonians in poor, black townships have <a href="https://www.groundup.org.za/article/water-restrictions-its-nothing-new-us-say-residents-informal-settlements/">endured all their lives</a>.</p>
<p>People can consider staying calm and being resilient and resourceful as they make plans to source and store water. They can even imagine a new community spirit as they find ways to <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-southern-africa-can-learn-from-other-countries-about-adapting-to-drought-90876">share this scarce resource</a>, help the most vulnerable and receive help from around the country. </p>
<p>Part of this imagining depends on leaders staying level headed. Citizens need public communication, not scaremongering that equates the worst case scenario with objective reality. They don’t need to be paralysed by a mindset of suspicion and dread.</p>
<p>Cape Town’s leaders should remain calm and help the people to act collectively in a democratic spirit.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90951/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joelien Pretorius does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Mass hysteria and lawlessness during disasters are remarkably rare, contrary to Western Cape Premier Helen Zille’s prediction of anarchy when Cape Town’s taps run day.
Joelien Pretorius, Associate Professor in Political Studies, University of the Western Cape
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/91076
2018-02-04T18:06:28Z
2018-02-04T18:06:28Z
The Murray Darling Basin Plan is not delivering – there’s no more time to waste
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204562/original/file-20180202-162104-yq76fn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Despite billions spent on trying to save water in the Murray Darling Basin, results have been disappointing.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Williams</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>More than five years after the <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/basin-plan">Murray Darling Basin Plan</a> was implemented, it’s clear that it is not delivering on its key objectives. </p>
<p>The Basin Plan, at its core, is about reducing the amount of water that can be extracted from its streams, rivers and aquifers. It includes an environmental water strategy to improve the conditions of the wetlands and rivers of the basin.
The Productivity Commission will conduct a five-yearly inquiry into the effectiveness of the Basin Plan in 2018. </p>
<p>It is high time to explain what is really going on in the Basin and water recovery. For this reason we have all signed the <a href="https://murraydeclaration.org">Murray-Darling Basin Declaration</a> to explain what has gone wrong, to call for a freeze on funding for new irrigation projects until the outcomes of water recovery has been fully and independently audited, and to call for the establishment of an independent, expert body to deliver on the key goals of the Water Act (2007).</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-murray-darling-basin-plan-broken-81613">Is the Murray-Darling Basin Plan broken?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Until the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/pumped/8727826">ABC’s 4 Corners program</a> in July last year, many Australians were unaware of alleged water theft and grossly deficient compliance along the Darling River. The true situation stands in stark contrast to the official view that all was well.</p>
<p>Some A$6 billion has been spent on “water recovery” in the Murray-Darling Basin. Of this, A$4 billion was used to subsidise irrigation infrastructure. This water recovery and the 2012 Basin Plan have been presented as a comprehensive solution to the environmental and economic problems of the Murray-Darling. But what has this huge public expenditure actually bought us?</p>
<p>The basin remains in a poor state. While there have been environmental improvements at specific sites, these have not been replicated basin-wide. Indeed, the federal government’s own <a href="https://soe.environment.gov.au/download">State of the Environment Report 2016</a> gives a “poor” assessment on inland water flows in the basin. It reports long-term downward trends in flows since 2011 and a widespread loss of ecosystem function. Other <a href="http://wentworthgroup.org/2017/11/review-of-water-reform-in-the-murray-darling-basin/2017/">evidence</a> tells the same story.</p>
<p>Water recovery infrastructure projects have benefited irrigators, but for many of these projects there is <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Standing_Committee_on_Agriculture_and_Water_Resources/Wateruseefficiency/Report">no scientific evidence that they have actually increased net stream flows</a>. Flows at the Murray River mouth remain inadequate. The federal government’s <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/sites/default/files/pubs/Final-BWS-Nov14_0816.pdf">objective</a> to keep the mouth open to the sea 90% of the time will almost certainly not be achieved. </p>
<p>The Murray mouth remains in a <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-21/coorong-wetlands-bird-numbers-low-algae-spreading/9345814">dire state</a> – <a href="http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/murray-mouth-dredging-reduced/news-story/cf93d6eb5089d482e3226046fe24e3bd">dredging</a> to keep it open is the norm rather than the exception, even without a drought.</p>
<p>How is it possible to spend A$6 billion on water recovery in the basin and have so little to show for it? It is now more than 11 years since the A$10 billion National Plan for Water Security was announced, seven years since the Millennium Drought ended, and the Australian government is already 70% towards achieving its water recovery goal. Surely, by now, Australian taxpayers – not to mention the river’s ecosystems – should be seeing a better return on this bold environmental investment?</p>
<h2>Bad decisions</h2>
<p>We have spent much of our working lives investigating water reforms and the health of the Murray-Darling Basin. We deplore the diversion of funds for environmental recovery into irrigation upgrades – a decision that simply represents poor public policy. Much more could have been <a href="http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p89361/pdf/murray_darling.pdf">achieved for far less</a>, as <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/sites/default/files/docs/detailed-environmental-water-recovery-estimates-as-at-30-september-2017.pdf">federal government data</a> show that buying water from willing sellers is 60% cheaper than building questionable engineering works.</p>
<p>To make matters worse, just two months ago the Murray-Darling Basin Authority recommended to parliament that buying back of environmental flows be <a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/basin-plan-roll-out/sustainable-diversion-limits/sustainable-diversion-limit-adjustment-mechanism">reduced by 22% by July 1, 2019</a>. This is an average annual reduction that exceeds the volume of water in Sydney Harbour. </p>
<p>Instead, 36 water supply projects are planned to deliver this water recovery goal. Yet 25 of them fail to satisfy the Basin Plan’s own conditions of approval such as environmental risks are adequately mitigated. </p>
<p>Plans are also afoot to “invest” A$1.5 billion in yet more infrastructure projects that will supposedly be the equivalent of 450 billion litres per year of water by 2024. South Australia demanded this extra water before it would approve the 2012 Basin Plan.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204542/original/file-20180202-162104-82zw0e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204542/original/file-20180202-162104-82zw0e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204542/original/file-20180202-162104-82zw0e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204542/original/file-20180202-162104-82zw0e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204542/original/file-20180202-162104-82zw0e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204542/original/file-20180202-162104-82zw0e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204542/original/file-20180202-162104-82zw0e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204542/original/file-20180202-162104-82zw0e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An algal bloom in the Darling River at Louth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Williams</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite spending A$4 billion to reduce water losses from irrigation over the past decade, we still do not know what impact this has had on the water that previously flowed from farmers’ paddocks and returned to wetlands, rivers and aquifers. The decline in these flows might have completely offset increases in environmental flows from water rights acquired through subsidies.</p>
<p>It is time to call it like it is. Australia is paying the price of alleged water theft, questionable environmental infrastructure water projects, and policies that subsidise private benefits at the expense of taxpayers and sustainability. </p>
<p>Accountability requires transparency in reporting and monitoring. So far we have failed to redirect public money away from wasteful subsidies while the rivers suffer. This is why we have signed the Murray-Darling Declaration, to highlight our concerns and to offer solutions.</p>
<h2>Steps to change</h2>
<p>Many aspects of water reform need to change, but three steps are necessary to deliver fully on the key objectives of the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2012L02240">Water Act 2007</a>. These are:</p>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>Stop</strong> any further expenditures on subsidies or grants for irrigation infrastructure in the Murray-Darling Basin until there is an independent, scientific and economic audit of what A$4 billion delivered in volumes of water and environmental outcomes.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Audit</strong> all water recovery and planned sustainable diversion limit (SDL) adjustments in the basin, including details of environmental water recovered, expenditures and actual environmental outcomes, especially in terms of stream flows at all special environmental assets, including the Murray Mouth.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Establish</strong> an independent expert scientific advisory body to monitor the basin’s health and to publicly guide all governments to ensure the full achievement of key objectives of the Water Act 2007. These are: to restore overallocated resources to environmentally sustainable levels of extraction; and to protect, restore and provide for the ecological values and ecosystem services of the Murray-Darling Basin.</p></li>
</ol>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/drought-on-the-murray-river-harms-ocean-life-too-88637">Drought on the Murray River harms ocean life too</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>There is no time to waste for the Murray-Darling Basin, its rivers, environments, traditional owners, and communities. Our declaration makes it clear what must be done. The federal and state governments must be held to account and actually deliver what is needed for the basin, before the next big drought causes irreversible damage.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article was co-authored by <a href="https://waterpartnership.org.au/about/leadership/richarddavis/">Richard Davis</a>, a former chief science adviser to the National Water Commission.</em></p>
<p><em>This article is <a href="https://www.policyforum.net/fixing-the-murray-darling-basin/">co-published</a> with <a href="https://www.policyforum.net/">Policy Forum</a> at the Crawford School of Public Policy.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91076/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Quentin Grafton has received, in the past, funding from the Australian Research Council and the Murray-Darling Basin Authority in relation to research on the Basin. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Darla Hatton MacDonald has received funding from the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and the Goyder Institute for Research in Water.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Paton has received funding from the Murray Darling Basin Authority and the South Australian Department of environment, Water and Natural Resources. He is a director of the not-for-profit organisation BioR, which undertakes research, education and habitat restoration projects.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Graham Harris worked for CSIRO for many years and in that role worked with, and, after retirement, was a consultant to, both the Murray Darling Basin Authority and the National Water Commission. He was a Board member of the CRC for Freshwater Ecology and a member of numerous other relevant Commonwealth committees and bodies. He is now fully retired and receives no relevant external funding or grants. He is an honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Wollongong and is an honorary Vice-President of the UK Freshwater Biological Association.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henning Bjornlund receives funding from the AUstralian Centre fot International Agricultural. He is affiliated with the International Water Resources Association, board member and chair of their Science, Technologu and Publication Commuttee.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeffery D Connor receives funding from The South Australian Government Goyder Institute for Water Research. He has also received past funding from The Murray Darling Basin Authority, the State of South Australian and From Goulburn Murray Water for research on Murray Darling Water Research. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Quiggin has received funding from the Australian Research Council for work on the management of the Murray Darling Basin.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Williams has worked as consultant through ANU for Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Kingsford receives funding from the Australian Government through the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder as well as conservation agencies of the New South Wales, Queensland and South Australian Government. He is also a member of the board of the Society for Conservation Biology (Oceania). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Ann Wheeler currently receives funding from Australian Research Council for work on water use and outcomes in the Murray-Darling Basin. She has also previously received funding to work on Murray-Darling Basin water recovery and irrigator water use issues from the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Department of Environment and Energy, National Water Commission, NCCARF and RIRDC. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lin Crase does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A dozen leading researchers have issued an urgent call to action for the Murray-Darling Basin, arguing that the billions spent on water-efficient irrigation have done little for the rivers’ health.
Quentin Grafton, Director of the Centre for Water Economics, Environment and Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Darla Hatton MacDonald, Associate Professor, University of Tasmania
David Paton, Associate Professor, University of Adelaide
Graham Harris, Professorial Fellow, University of Wollongong
Henning Bjornlund, Professor, University of South Australia
Jeffery D Connor, Professor in Water Economics, University of South Australia
John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland
John Williams, Adjunct Professor Environment and Natural Resources, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Lin Crase, Professor of Economics and Head of School, University of South Australia
Richard Kingsford, Professor, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UNSW Sydney
Sarah Ann Wheeler, Professor in Water Economics, University of Adelaide
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/86301
2017-11-05T19:16:36Z
2017-11-05T19:16:36Z
This is what Australia’s growing cities need to do to avoid running dry
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192742/original/file-20171031-18738-ximymd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Thomson Dam, Melbourne's largest water storage, dropped to only 16% of capacity in the last big drought.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/melbournewater/5028903801/in/album-72157624917339153/">Melbourne Water/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The increasing thirst of Australia’s biggest cities routinely exceeds our capacity to rely on rainfall for drinking water. Australia is facing a fast-approaching “perfect storm” of growing urban populations and declining rainfall to supply storage reservoirs. </p>
<p>Despite these challenges, our capital cities’ rapid population growth is forecast to continue in coming decades. Sydney, for example, is expected to grow by <a href="http://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/Plans-for-your-area/Sydney/A-Plan-for-Growing-Sydney">1.6 million people in 20 years</a>, but is predicted to be <a href="http://www.news.com.au/finance/melbourne-will-be-australias-biggest-city-by-2037/news-story/ac7ca88a29fe1c1d026de2c7d24e81eb">overtaken by Melbourne</a> as the nation’s largest city by then. </p>
<p>How is Australia going to ensure the swelling urban population has enough water? The last two decades provide some important clues. </p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-lessons-we-need-to-learn-to-deal-with-the-creeping-disaster-of-drought-68172">The lessons we need to learn to deal with the ‘creeping disaster’ of drought</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>The largest east coast centres (Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane and Sydney) have all faced water supply challenges, but Perth and Adelaide have really been pushed to extreme levels. Current <a href="http://www.bom.gov.au/water/dashboards/#/water-storages/summary/state">water storage levels</a> in Australian capital cities range from 94.2% in Hobart and 69.7% in Melbourne through to 40.4% in Perth – the lowest of the capital cities. Only a year ago it was an alarming 28.5%. </p>
<p>Why are Perth’s water storages so low? Because of steep <a href="https://www.watercorporation.com.au/water-supply/rainfall-and-dams/streamflow/streamflowhistorical">declines in rainfall and catchment runoff</a> into the city’s dams. </p>
<p>The world is watching Perth and its water supply crisis. The long-term volume of water flowing into the Perth supply has plummeted from an annual average of 338 gigalitres (1911 to 1974) to less than 50 GL/year (2010-2016). During this 43-year “big dry”, the number of people served by the Perth water supply has increased steeply. </p>
<p>How has Perth managed to survive? <a href="http://www.water.wa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/8521/110200.pdf">Desalination and groundwater</a> have come to the rescue. Perth relies less on catchment runoff and surface storages, and now has two giant desalination plants. It also has tapped into groundwater as a major source of domestic water.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/drought-proofing-perth-the-long-view-of-western-australian-water-36349">‘Drought-proofing’ Perth: the long view of Western Australian water</a></em></p>
<hr>
<h2>Solutions have been costly</h2>
<p>All water utilities across Australia struggle with increased population growth and extended periods of low rainfall. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-is-not-ready-for-the-next-big-dry-12819">Millennium Drought</a> caused widespread problems for all Australian urban water supplies. The levels in major east coast storages shrivelled to the lowest levels in decades. </p>
<p>Melbourne’s water storages fell to a perilous low of 26% in June 2009. A large part of Adelaide’s water supply has relied on declining flows in the Murray River. The drought combined with extractions by upstream water users reduced the Murray to a trickle in 2006-07.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-19/victoria-desalination-plant-finally-delivers-water/8367554">All</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Desalination_Plant">of</a> <a href="http://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/news/gold-coast/rustbucket-perception-dogs-tugun-desalination-plant-a-decade-after-its-conception/news-story/e59034a89a5d0ae1112876ad087c5e9a">the</a> <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-28/adelaide-desal-plant-too-big-and-too-expensive/9096046">mainland</a> <a href="https://thewest.com.au/news/perth/dry-winters-to-force-1b-desal-hit-ng-b88527052z">states</a> have built huge desalination plants, but these come with <a href="https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=7&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwizro3-v5zXAhUMHJQKHSzTAiwQFghLMAY&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.afr.com%2Fbusiness%2Finfrastructure%2Ftaxpayers-left-holding-the-desalination-bag-20170110-gtoqqz&usg=AOvVaw2QH61iMnnaB_3KzPnAkPZ6">huge price tags</a>. The Melbourne plant cost about A$4 billion.</p>
<p>Operational costs are enormous, even if the plants sit idle. The Sydney plant’s costs are more than <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/535m-paid-to-keep-desalination-plant-in-state-of-hibernation-20150410-1miuw6.html">A$500,000 a day</a>, although it has not supplied any water since 2012 as the city’s stored water supply remains higher than 60% of capacity. </p>
<p>Desalination also uses enormous quantities of electricity to extract fresh water from salt water. During his time as NSW premier, Bob Carr referred to desalination as “bottled electricity”. This is important to consider given the <a href="https://theconversation.com/gas-crisis-energy-crisis-the-real-problem-is-lack-of-long-term-planning-74705">power crisis</a> facing eastern Australia. </p>
<h2>Urban growth affects water quality</h2>
<p>The growth of the urban populations and other human activities is linked to water quality issues in urban water supplies. Melbourne’s water catchments are mostly “closed” – minimal private landholdings and human activity are permitted. In contrast, Sydney and Brisbane have more “open” catchments, which include private lands. </p>
<p>Three Brisbane storages (Wivenhoe, North Pine and Somerset) have water quality issues linked to agriculture and other human activity in the catchments. Sydney’s massive Warragamba Dam has a huge catchment that includes more than 110,000 people. The settlements are served by nine sewage treatment plants, most of which <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/lc/papers/DBAssets/tabledpaper/WebAttachments/71475/Sydney%20Catchment%20Audit%20Vol%201.pdf">discharge treated sewage</a> into drinking water catchment rivers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192535/original/file-20171030-18735-1ow21hw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192535/original/file-20171030-18735-1ow21hw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192535/original/file-20171030-18735-1ow21hw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192535/original/file-20171030-18735-1ow21hw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192535/original/file-20171030-18735-1ow21hw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192535/original/file-20171030-18735-1ow21hw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192535/original/file-20171030-18735-1ow21hw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New South Wales’ hydroelectric Warragamba Dam.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Taras Vyshnya / Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A recent audit of the Sydney catchments and storages <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/lc/papers/DBAssets/tabledpaper/WebAttachments/71475/Sydney%20Catchment%20Audit%20Vol%201.pdf">reported</a> that sewage treatment plant upgrades had improved water quality. The audit recommended that future upgrades improve sewage treatment for the growing urban population in the NSW Southern Highlands (Bowral, Mittagong and Moss Vale). </p>
<h2>The case for water conservation and recycling</h2>
<p>Perth and Adelaide are the two capitals under most water supply stress. They are an example for all Australian capitals to consider when planning future water supply challenges and solutions. Both Perth and Adelaide now heavily rely on recycled water and desalination. </p>
<p>Recycling waste water for use in urban water supplies is important for all urban centres, particularly Perth and Adelaide. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization points out that waste water has numerous <a href="http://www.fao.org/docrep/w5367e/w5367e04.htm">public health risks</a>, so risk management is essential for all recycled water schemes. </p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-can-get-over-the-yuck-factor-when-it-comes-to-recycled-water-65108">Why we can get over the ‘yuck factor’ when it comes to recycled water</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>Perth and Adelaide are both using more groundwater than the other capital cities. Perth is extracting more groundwater from deep aquifers north of the city. Perth is also <a href="https://www.watercorporation.com.au/-/media/files/about-us/planning-for-the-future/wa-10-year-water-supply-strategy.pdf">pumping treated waste water</a> into shallower groundwater aquifers to replenish the supply. </p>
<p>No new large water supply dam has been built in Australia since the 1980s. The challenge of meeting future urban water demand is not likely to be solved by building new dams.</p>
<p>While desalination, groundwater and recycling are all growing in importance, our individual actions to conserve and use less water are key. For example, the consumption of water per person in Sydney has dropped from 500 litres a day in 1990 to <a href="http://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/%7E/media/Files/DPE/Plans-and-policies/a-plan-for-growing-sydney-2014-12.ashx">less than 300 litres</a>. Melbourne has a <a href="http://target155.vic.gov.au/">daily target</a> of 155 litres per person. </p>
<p>There is plenty of room for improvement. According to <a href="http://www.data360.org/dsg.aspx?Data_Set_Group_Id=757">United Nations data</a>, Australia still has the second-highest daily water consumption per person. The US has the world’s highest at 575 litres a day. The UK is already exceeding Melbourne’s target with 149 litres per day. Tragically, in Mozambique, water is in such short supply that people there use a paltry four litres per day.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86301/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Wright has previously done consulting work for local, NSW and Australian government agencies on a broad range of water-related projects. </span></em></p>
Australian cities have turned to some very costly solutions when water is scarce. But as the world’s second-highest users of water per person, more efficient use and recycling are key.
Ian A. Wright, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science, Western Sydney University
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