cchris

This is Lake Argyle,located in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
The mighty Ord River was dammed in 1971, forming a storage reservoir to supply water to one of Australia's largest and most ambitious irrigation schemes.The lake can encompass an area of more than 2000km2,a volume of water equivalent to 54 Sydney Harbours.
It does it's job well.

But.

Thousands of litres run away to nothing every day.
Every wet season more water flows out of the Ord river and Lake Argyle, than Perth can use in a year.

With most of Australia in drought one would think that this could provide a solution.
Now,the cost must be worth it to run a water pipeline to major centres to ease the drought,and indeed get on top of a problem that is quickly becoming a national disgrace,so why won't governments explore this option?
It's been raised before and whenever anyone asks for a new dam to be built,the politicians run and hide.
This one already exists and a gas pipeline from the top of Australia to the bottom has been done,so why can't one be built for water?
Employment will be created,the outrageous price we pay for meat here at the moment will be eased and most of all,the Country will prosper.
What has happened to the visionary approach we used to have here?
Or maybe it's too simplistic an idea?

However.

We will run out one day unless we start to think.

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anleja

Speaking of running out of water...

In today's paper there was a George Will Editorial where he writes about Las Vegas using much more water than it has. I'm getting figures from his article here:

The area gets only 4.3 inches of water a year. Some scientists think that, based on tree rings, the past 100 years was unusually wet, and are expecting this current "dry era" to be the worst in 500 years.

Las Vegas gets 85% of its water from Lake Mead, which has dropped 74 feet in two years and is at 63% of capacity.

130,000 people in 1964.
2,000,000 by end of decade.

I really don't know what other options they have for water, but money is, as always, an issue. Money is largely spent on roads, housing foundations and other objects of sprawl. Health-care for the elderly suffering from respiratory illness due to traffic congestion and constant construction is not cheap. Add to this that almost half of the population is retired or almost retired, that is even more money they are not getting.

I expect people will be hearing more about water-shortage issues as our population explodes as the earth gets drier. I for one feel fortunate to live in the Great Lakes region, right in the middle of the world's largest fresh water source.

Posting this made me thirsty.

Meridae'n

That's a huge ask Chris... sure, we're in the middle of a drought, but that's not really a good enough excuse to go laying 5000+kms of pipeline. Everything's cyclical, and soon enough we'll be out of drought conditions and the pipeline would be sitting there with millions of litres of water sitting in it, doing nothing.

The beauty of having every bastard living on the coast is that there tends to be enough water lying around for anything. There's only three population centres that would have problems, and they all sit on areas of very high rainfall. Saying that, I can't really speak for Perth...

I would have to read a bit more about it before I went either way, do you have any links?

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cchris

Information from HERE

The majority of water consumption occurred in NSW/ACT (39%), Victoria (30%) and Queensland (17%). South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory combined consumed the remaining 14%.

They use the most so require it.
........................................................................................................
From HERE

On a per capita basis, Australia has one of the largest consumptions of water in the world.
On average each Australian uses 1.31 million litres each year-a total of 24 000 GL in 1996/97.

Irrigated agriculture is the biggest water user (about 70-75%). The rest is taken for urban and industrial purposes (about 20%) and in rural areas for stock and domestic purposes (5%).

In a typical Australian household in 1996/97 each person used around 350 L/day of water that had been treated to drinking water standard.
Half of this was used for gardening; flushing toilets used about a quarter.

People in Asia, Africa and Latin America use 50-100 L/day, people in the USA use 400-500 L/day.

On average, Australian water use increased by 65% between 1983/84 and 1996/97.
This was mostly due to increases in irrigated agriculture.
Urban water use per person declined over the 1990s mainly due to an increased awareness of the need to reduce water waste and implementation of water pricing.

Industrial use is not large and is falling as industries become more efficient.

........................................................................................................

From HERE

Australia needs a national policy on to ensure water is used for purposes which will maximise its contribution to the economy.


THE GLOBAL VIEW


Yeah,I suppose it is a big ask but then again we are our own worst enemies when it come to consumption.
However.
A pipeline though that provides assistance to farmers can only help the economy in the long run.

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ChrisJericho

Move to Seattle. You can have all the water you want.

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mr_mcrafe

I can't help but wonder what is the equation in your sig ChrisJericho?

How long is this drought expected to last cchris? If it's just a couple of years and it won't get too bad then the cost of the pipeline may just outweigh the benefits.

krwlz

Sounds like a good solution to me, but water shortage will be a problem everywhere soon. People simply waste... and waste, and waste. I think americans are the worst.

When we learn to conserve, everything, worldwide, the issues will start to resolve themselves.

cchris

It could last for years depending on many global weather patterns,and as population increases there are only limited ways of reducing water consumption.The current water restrictions imposed have gone a huge way to ease the effects but the levels continue to drop.
The Sydney basin reservior is currently at 51% of capacity and predicted short term rainfall is not promising.

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moot1337

Me=d0rk.

that being said, 6CO2 + 12H2O --> C6H12O6 + 6H2O + 6O2 is the chemical reaction that takes place inside plants to make CO2 and H2O into glucose (C6H12O6), water, and oxygen.

Photosynthesis... from a chemists standpoint :P

bbb

The problem with water is that we tend to take it for granted and waste way to much. The answer is not new dams and pipelines it is conservation of our existing supplies. North americans have the highest per capita water usage in the world. If we were to take shorter showers and let our lawns go brown in the summertime we would be fine. It seems a simple solution because it is.

VitaminH

Beat me too it.

*Returns to his geekiness*

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MSD

It's the ... [some guy's name] cycle of photosynthesis.

water and carbon dioxide react, forming glucose, oxygen, and some water

edit: now that I scrolled down after replying, I see that someone beat me to it

GakFace

Yep, we have so much water now everything thinks it'll stay that way.... and it won't. You'd think there'd be bigger campaigns explaining this, ESPECIALLY here in the states. If people only knew what the effect of running the water while brushing their teeth was.. I mean doing that every day, that adds up to A LOT of wasted water.

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