Australia’s a country that is completely surrounded by water, so one would not imagine that they experience too many water related issues. The country is home to more than 10% of the entire world’s biodiversity. This makes it an importantly major part of the world’s ecosystem. Australia is over 2 million square miles and houses a population of around 22 million. The arid climate, large expanses of unused land, and wasteful uses of water all lead to a plethora of water related issues. Australia relies on both its freshwater and saltwater for environmental, economic, and social reasons. Environmental aspects of water in Australia affect everything from plants, to animals, to humans. Australia is one of, if not the most, environmentally diverse countries on the planet. To the north you get tropical wetlands, the middle is full of arid desserts, and the south is a temperate landscape. Overall, Australia only gets an average of 18.3 inches of rain. But 80% of Australia’s land gets less than 20 inches of rain every year. This means that the ecological environment is specifically tailored to limited water resources. Australia’s unique lands often flood, experience droughts, and burn naturally. But as soon as any humans take over an area and start taking water resources for themselves, problems arise. Being as secluded as they are, Australians have learned to be majorly self-sufficient. While this in some aspects is seen as a sustainable aspect, it causes many issues with water as
According to the International Water Management Institute environmental research organisation global water stress is increasing, and a third of all people face some sort of water scarcity. Where demand exceeds supply and no effective management operates, there will be conflicts between the various players involved.
The consumption of water has been increasing in the last few decades. Most of the demand is caused by agricultural activities (BBC Features). Water needed for industrial purposes also drives up the demand. The world can learn about ways of conserving water from the countries that have initiated the measures and have become successful at it. Australia is considered as the most successful so far. Recycling, desalination, and harvesting rainwater are some of the solutions that can be applied to handle water shortages and create
The Earth is a huge planet this is covered by 70 percent water. Astonishingly from this 70 percent the human population can only use 1 percent of the world’s water the rest of it is salt water, frozen, or in some way unattainable (Santa Clara Valley Water District, 2016). Humans have found many different ways to obtain this 1 percent of fresh water they need, but the techniques vary depending on location. In San Jose, California we obtain our water from 3 major sources: groundwater, imported surface water, and local mountain surface water. These 3 sources contribute different amounts of water to the San Jose community. Imported surface water composes about 50 percent of our water supply, while ground water composes roughly 40 percent, and local mountain surface water composes approximately 10 percent (Santa Jose Water Company, 2016). However, these percentages can change due to factors such as weather and global warming.
Water may be a renewable resource, but the world’s supply of drinkable fresh water is being consumed more rapidly than ever before, and most importantly, more rapidly than it can be replenished. Only 2.5% of water on Earth is fresh
Water is the most relied upon resource on earth and if it disappeared life could not and would not exist on this planet. So if one of our main sources of water in South Australia, The Murray Darling-Basin, becomes unusable then we would need to find the problem and do everything possible to stop it or counteract it. This report investigates on salinity in the Murray Darling-Basin, using the issue question “Is there enough being done to counteract the effects of salinity in the Murray?” as the focus. Salinity is a key significant environmental challenge which the Murray faces and if left unmanaged it could cause serious implications for water quality, plant growth, biodiversity, land productivity, infrastructure and could lead to a loss of
Today, this briefing note is put to you the 'National Taskforce on Environmental Science and Sustainable Development' in response to Urbanisation and its effects on Australias’ waterways. This is fast becoming a critical environmental issue affecting Australia.
As Australia has a lot of land used for agricultural purposes, we are one of the greatest exporters in the world. This means a lot of the world depends on us for food but when we only have 472mm of water a year, the lowest of all the continents ( except Antartica ) we can find it hard to irrigate our crops at time. With 80% of Australians de-hydrating everyday, some because they don’t care about drinking water but many others as they don’t have the fresh water to drink, if we cannot supply enough water to drink wear are we meant to get the water to irrigate plants? Water scarcity has had a dramatic effect on our ability to grow crops, making it hard to grow crops for not only our country to eat but all the other countries we export food
Australia has a big agricultural industry so many people live in rural areas where there are no pipes connected to the houses there. An alternative to find water is through rainwater tanks, storm water harvesting and farm dams. It would take longer for the water to come than
The Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) is Australia’s primary productive river basin, accounting for $19 billion of agricultural output and providing nearly half of Australia’s food supply. In the last century, the MBD has suffered from rising salinity rates which has jeopardised Australia’s water quality and supply, biodiversity and land productivity. Moreover, human activity such as irrigation development and land clearing for urbanisation has exacerbated these salinity rates, suggesting an urgent call for action. This essay attempts to explore this important issue, drawing on two significant impacts salinity has on the MDB and their implications for productivity and sustainability.
Rainfall is low and unpredictable in Australia. In summary, the environmental problems there are similar to Greenland under the Norse, including deforestation, overgrazing and soil erosion, but also salinization, introduced species, water shortage and man-made droughts (Diamond, 379).
This report is aimed to develop an environmental management plan regarding the environmental issues that the Lachlan River catchment and lake Chad is facing. The Lachlan Valley catchment in central western NSW, centers on the Lachlan River. It is located west by the Great Dividing Range, to the north by the Macquarie and south by the Murrumbidgee. Lake Chad, located on the border of Chad, Africa. Both of these areas are affected by salinity. Salinity is the measure of all the salts dissolved in water (Narragansett Bay Commission). This purpose of this investigation is to find out the problems affecting these areas and find possible strategies and solutions to preserve these environments in the future. Two strategies intended for protecting
With the growing population of the world, demand for food is increasing. This means that Australian farmers are struggling to provide enough food for the global market, and clean water for irrigation is as important as ever. In Australia, agriculture is the largest consumer of water, representing around 70% of our total annual water consumption. Australia is a major exporter of food, particularly wheat and beef, to the rest of the world. In 2009, 60% of Australia's agricultural produce was exported overseas. Overall meat production is expected to double by 2050, meaning that even more pressure will be put on the Australian meat industry. Recent droughts have meant that less water has been allocated to irrigating crops,
Water is the main source of life on the Earth. It is vital for normal existence and functioning of organisms. Earth is sometimes called “water planet.” But, in fact, the number of freshwater is limited. “Only about 2 percent of the planet's water is fresh.” (How much water is there on Earth?) This water is not enough even to meet daily needs of mankind. According to World Health Organization, “a lack of water to meet daily needs is a reality today for one in three people around the world.” (2009) In the Middle East the situation is especially hard. This region is thought to be one of the droughtiest places in the world, most of it’s territory is deserted. Freshwater accounts to 1 percent of the world’s supplies, while the population comes
But in recent studies it has shown that in some communities in Australia struggle to meet water standards. (Schwarzenbach et al., 2010) has recently shown that drinking water in some parts of Australia has shown to be contaminated with uranium, faecal bacteria and nitrates. (Schwarzenbach, R., Egli, T., Hofstetter, T., Von Gunten, U., & Wehrli, B. (2010).Meaning those who don 't have access to clean water in Australia will likely become sick or catch a disease affecting not only their growth but a child growth as well. Water is important to the human body. As we not only depend on it to live it helps our cells to function properly. Not having clean water can hinder our development but can affect our organs as well.As that being said low income communities in Australia will most likely have less access to clean water as opposed to those who are of high income. (Health, J., & Kim. (2004) found that air pollution can cause chronic effects on the development of a child that can lead to many illnesses like asthma and bronchitis as a result of living in high-ozone country meaning high pollutant than those who live in a low-ozone country.Committee on Environmental Health, J., & Kim. (2004). In Australia, food security is considered to be an important social determinant of health and a significant public health issue at national and state levels. Food insecurity is, however, especially important to child and family
Water scarcity is the lack of sufficient available water resources to meet the demands of water usage within a region. It already affects every continent and around 2.8 billion people around the world at least one month out of every year. More than 1.2 billion people lack access to clean drinking water. Water scarcity involves water stress, water shortage or deficits, and water crisis. While the concept of water stress is relatively new, it is the difficulty of obtaining sources of fresh water for use during a period of time,result in further depletion and deterioration of available water resources. Water shortages may be caused by climate change, such as altered weather patterns including droughts or