We all have to live with less water: expert

Monday, 8 October 2007

Southern Australia has become drier and we will all have to learn to live with much less water.

That will be the stark warning from one of Australia's leading water policy reformers Professor Mike Young at the latest of the University of Adelaide's free Research Tuesdays seminars on Tuesday 9 October.

"It is now clear to all that the reliability of Australia's, and more particularly, South Australia's water supplies has declined," Professor Young says. "The bad news is that the situation is worse than many realise. We are now borrowing from the future and it is prudent to assume that we will have to live with much less water."

Professor Young is Professor of Water Economics and Management in the University's School of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

At Research Tuesday he will argue the need for urgent change: "The more we delay planning to live in this new regime, the greater the costs of changing will be," he says. "We need to understand that the challenges go beyond the River Murray and include the South East and water supply systems for the Yorke Peninsula, the Eyre Peninsula, Kangaroo Island and the Outback."

South Australia, he says, has the opportunity to embrace this "new emerging reality" and take a lead as Australia's "most water savvy State".

But to emerge as the international leader in water management, the State and its businesses, researchers and communities would need to adopt a series of permanent policies and measures that provide incentives to reduce consumption by all, and increase the effectiveness of our water use and storage.

The Research Tuesdays public seminars - held on the second Tuesday of every month - are an initiative of the University of Adelaide, giving leading researchers an opportunity to engage with business, community leaders and the general public on issues that impact on them.

WHAT: "WATER - there's a hole in the bucket" by Professor Mike Young
WHERE: Lecture Room 102, Napier Building, North Terrace Campus, University of Adelaide
WHEN: 5.30pm Tuesday 9 October
COST: Free. Please book by email: research.tuesdays@adelaide.edu.au or phone: 8303 3692

 

Contact Details

Professor Mike Young
Email: mike.young@adelaide.edu.au
Executive Director
The Environment Institute
University of Adelaide
Business: +61 8 8313 5279
Mobile: + 61 0408 488 538


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