water shortages!

[tean]

I know this might sound strange but given that Adelaide is the driest state in the driest continent, is there a serious risk of a drought that may have major implications in the future? I recently heard a scary prediction about global warming and how this will affect people in having to move to away from drought areas, and areas with sufficient water, closing there borders to outsiders!! Sounds drastic I know!! Any thoughts??

Just one of my trains of thought in weighing up the pros and cons of leaving the UK for Oz!

[ShaunWilson]

Well if you believe all the rubbish spouted about global warming, then you got a choice of living in Oz where we are now taking water from the sea, processing it and making fit for human consumption and enjoy the great outdoors lifestyle. Or staying in good old UK and drowning when the whole country floods!! IF you believe all the guff they are saying. lol

[Anne B]

South Australia is very vulnerable to drought and water shortages. The good news is that this winter there has been some heavy rainfall to fill up the reservoirs and they are building a desalination plant so that sea water can be used.

 

The bad news is that the region is dependant on the River Murray for a lot of its water, and over the years more and more of the water is being taken further upstream (particularly for crop irrigation) so there is very little left by the time it gets to South Australia and eventually to the sea. In recent years there have been drought conditions too, which all contribute to rising salinity levels in the river.

 

I found this article which goes into more detail:

 

http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13611117

[Guest Guest75]

It's a concern but I'd not panic for now.

 

The Desalination plant at O'Sullivans in coming online next year - promising 50% of Adelaide's water needs.

 

The powers that be should really look at harvesting more rain water though.

[ShaunWilson]

Just to point out, that i wasn't trying to take the michael of the issues regarding the original post, just the fact of the "scary prediction about global warming".

[Flutterby]

I can't actually believe the amount of water that runs from people's gutters into the streets here. I am sure that a lot of people use tanks in their gardens but it is not evident where I live - I had a water butt in the UK which was filled up from the gutter of our extension, some of these heavy falls we have had lately would have filled it up twice over.