Can Australia Overcome its Water Scarcity Problems?

Abstract

Australia is a continent of extremes with respect to water resources; relative abundance in the tropical north where few people live and relative scarcity in the more populated, temperate south. In addition, both south and north are affected by wet/dry seasonal climatic conditions and the south, in particular, by increasing climate variability marked generally by declining rainfall. In the south, previous poor governance systems have led to the over allocation of surface and groundwater supplies and there is increasing competition for water from irrigators, urban/domestic, industrial and mining users. As a consequence, there has been a major deleterious impact on the health of many rivers and their associated environments. Therefore, Australia is confronted with a major question; can water productivity and water governance be improved to ensure environmentally sustainable and productive river systems? This paper examines how this may be achieved. It concludes that economic reforms coupled with scientific and management innovation may alleviate many of the water scarcity issues.