Water Scarcity in Australia

Water Scarcity in Australia

With the increasing food demand in Australia, the issue of water scarcity has become a significant problem. Water scarcity can have a critical threat on many aspects, in terms of agriculture. This essay will analyze the problem of water scarcity and evaluate viable solutions. This will be done by focusing on source control measures and seawater desalination.

Water becomes insufficient mainly because of over-allocation. For instance, the Murray-Darling river system in Australia is lack of water due to over-extraction. Water plays a pivotal role in human’s daily life owing to the fact that it is not only used for industry, it is also an important agriculture resource. A kilo of industrially produced meat takes 10,000 liters of water (IWMI 2006, p. 1) However, population growth and dietary change caused by urbanization lead to increasing food demand. As a consequence, it will require around a 70% increase in water needed to feed people. (Harding R, 2008)

There are several useful alleviation strategies that can be adopted to solve the challenge of a lack of water. First and foremost, source control measures can be used for decreasing water waste. It is necessary for governments to educate the whole society: how important the water scarcity problem is, and what methods people can use to save water. Mass media, in terms of TV advertisements, will be an effective way to propaganda this education. Moreover, ocean water desalination, supported by high technologies, is also a methodology to preserve water source because Australia has abundant seawater due to a long coast line. Actually, this strategy will bring extra water resource. Therefore, people in Australia can use water which does not only come from lacks and rivers, but also from the sea. The weakness of this approach may be it is expensive to develop water desalination technology.

In conclusion, water scarcity is a significant issue in Australia. Source control measures as well...