Growing population, growing demand for food, climate change: Australia’s rural lands are facing a number of pressures. So how can we sustainably use them in the future?
Western water law means collecting rainwater was legal only a few years ago in some states.
rain barrel via www.shutterstock
States, including Colorado, restrict the use of rain barrels. A water law scholar says a better way to conserve is reduce waste from big – and powerful – water users.
Many women in developing countries spend hours every day fetching water for their families. Reducing the burden of water work will improve their health and welfare.
A troubled town.
Michigan Municipal Leage via Flickr
Unlike the U.S., some European countries have stopped using chlorine to disinfect drinking water to avoid changing the taste and potential health problems. Which approach is better?
Fertilizer runoff and other activities have 60 percent of Chesapeake Bay in a virtual dead zone.
Chesapeake Bay Program
In its first environmental case post-Scalia, the Supreme Court rebuffs farm and ranching interests that opposed the EPA’s multistate plan to restore Chesapeake Bay using the Clean Water Act.
Artichokes growing in Werribee South, an area that uses recycled water for irrigation.
Jen Sheridan
Australians eat a lot of water. Nearly 500 L is required to produce the food each of us eats every day.
There are still concerns over the impact of upstream coalmines on water in the Warragamba Dam, a key part of Sydney’s water network.
AAP Image/Dean Lewins
The cutting of senior staff from WaterNSW, the body that oversees the safety of Sydney’s water supply, poses serious risks to Australia’s most complex water network.
So much water has gone into groundwater it has slowed rising seas.
Bore image from www.shutterstock.com
Treating municipal water, particularly from rivers, is difficult technically and cash-strapped municipalities like Flint don’t always know the latest science.
The University of Michigan-Flint puts experts from academia in the same room as Flint community members, an innovative model for educating the community and forming the public health response.
Up until the 1940s, as much as half of U.S. water piping from main lines was made of lead.
Thomashawk/flickr
Chris Sellers, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)
A wake-up call from Flint: the U.S. has made great gains in reducing lead exposure, but the country is still saddled with millions of miles of water-carrying lead pipes.
Footballers freezing in the ocean post-match is a familiar sight, but does it work?
Britta Campion/AAP
With a future of droughts looming for the US West, Utah’s Wasatch watershed offers a good model that combines conservation with nature-based recreation.
Have we been jumping to conclusions about water on Mars?
Despite a decade of drought and declining rainfall in parts of Australia, there’s still plenty of water to go around.
Maroondah reservoir from www.shutterstock.com
The Millennium Drought ended more than five years ago, but several years of below-average rainfall and El Niño have brought drought back to many parts of Australia. Our latest report on water in Australia shows rainfall is continuing to decline in eastern Australia and increase in the north.
Professor of Civil, Environmental & Ecological Engineering, Director of the Healthy Plumbing Consortium and Center for Plumbing Safety, Purdue University
Professor in Practice on Environmental Innovation, School of Social and Environmental Sustainability, University of Glasgow, UK, National University of Singapore
Associate Professor of Environmental Economics and Policy, School of Environment, Science and Engineering, and Fellow of the Marine Ecology Research Centre, Southern Cross University