"It's what's kept us functioning as a city with those small little, you know, showers can provide us with a couple of days of water supply. "Orange collects urban water, recycles it, treats it highly and brings it into their water supply … they're teaching us all how to become more resilient and about how to adapt to a potentially drying climate. "Many people look in horror at what happened to Perth and south-west WA where they've had a 45-, getting on near 50-year decline in rainfall," Dr Wright said. people as the First Peoples and Nations of the lands and waters we live and Again in 2018, much of the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) was dealing with temperatures a full degree above average and rainfalls 41 per cent below the long term average. In 2018 much of Australia was again in drought but, while severe, it was not as prolonged as the millennium drought — the longest dry spell in post-colonial history, with nine consecutive years of low autumn rains, crucial for the southern cropping season. The book based on this timeline can be ordered through your bookstore or from the usual online stores. But experts like Dr Wright fear that with the arrival of some rain, many have already started to forget just how dire the situation was. The drought increased the concern about climate change and water management, particularly in the Murray-Darling basin. 2019 was both Australia's driest and hottest year ever recorded. The data showed large-scale declines in water storages across much of NSW and southern Queensland, many plummeting to levels lower than the Millennium Drought of the 2000s. The Split Rock and Keepit storages in the Namoi Valley both dropped to below 1 per cent of capacity. Facing decades of declining rainfall and huge drops in inflows into its surface water storages, prominent ecologist Tim Flannery in 2004 warned the city faced "a catastrophic failure of its water supply". Professor Vertessy and Dr Wright both agree that major water policy changes only tend to happen in the jaws of a crisis — and that needs to change to prevent more pain for communities in the firing line of changing climate. Relative soil moisture levels improved and there was enough rain to deliver the first large uptick to storages in years. Supplies to the nearly 4000 South Australian irrigators that get their water from the River Murray were severely restricted, putting pressure on agricultural and horticultural industries and regional communities. In response, the city adapted. It crippled an already depleted water supply in NSW and southern Queensland. "It was just an extraordinary sense of loss and devastation really, for jobs, for the economy and for people's mental health, all triggered by a lack of water.". More details here. The years between 2001 and 2009 were the longest uninterrupted series of years with below median rainfall in southeast Australia since at least 1900. "To give you an idea of how dry it was in some areas where we got that February rain, there's over 200 millimetres of rain that soaked into the soil before producing any runoff across the landscape into our rivers and dams," Mr Coulton said. Menu Search ", Like us on Facebook to see similar stories, South Australian court ruling lets thousands of drivers dodge $2 million in red light fines, Lori Loughlin to spend Halloween behind bars, "We can’t wait for the newest member of our little family!" It spent tens of millions of dollars on infrastructure as a defence against future drought. State governments undertook various projects to maintain supply to metropolitan areas, including the building of desalination plants. 33 wetlands were temporarily disconnected to help save water, risking long-term damage to the ecosystem. As a result water storages dwindled and the zero-day clock — the time given before a town runs dry — began ticking. Dubbed the Millennium Drought, it was only partly relieved by rains in 2008, while some regions remained dry until 2010. Much work has been done to help drought recovery and build resilience into the river system so it is better able to cope with future droughts, including working on the Basin Plan. Australia is, of course, no stranger to drought. For three years, Kate Hook watched as the only source of water for her and her kids slowly vanished. So while severe dry spells are not unusual, it's the duration and frequency of recent droughts that have water experts like Robert Vertessy concerned. "We are in a shifting climate and in many ways we've got allocation regimes that assume that the future looks like the last century and, increasingly, it's not looking that way," he said. "[And] it's not just the pressures that are being felt by communities but it's also the pressures that are being felt by ecosystems. 8 Citations; 13 Mentions; 3.1k Downloads; Part of the The World’s Water book series (WORLDWA) Abstract. A combination of low rainfall and the lowest inflows into the river in recorded history meant flows over the border into South Australia virtually ceased, with unprecedented impacts. It’s a nostalgic look at our food history from mutton to MasterChef. "That's something that keeps you awake at night," said Orange City councillor Joanne McRae. In the hardest-hit area of the northern Murray-Darling Basin, by January storages had plummeted to just 5.4 per cent of capacity — almost 8 per cent lower than the lowest point in the Millennium Drought. In 2012, after the Millennium Drought, when water supplies ran perilously low, the city took action. Adelaide’s water supply was threatened, and pipelines had to be built to deliver drinking water to the Lower Lakes communities and sustain valuable horticultural industries. In the northern Murray-Darling Basin, by the end of 2019 dams were just a fifth of the size they were in 2016. Having soil this dry meant that for many areas, it took a lot more rain to break the drought. and I say, 'Go to Perth,' because that is likely to happen here on the east coast.". The family cut shower times to 30 seconds, they recycled water as much as possible and taps were never ever left running. So you turn on the tap, nothing comes out. Buy it now. It was a level of water stress that many people in these towns had never before experienced. The centrepiece of its plan was an innovative stormwater harvesting system. Dr Luke Mosley of the Environmental Protection Agency discusses water quality risks in the lower River Murray and lakes associated with the extreme drought. In Toowoomba, residents voted down a plan to add recycled sewage to the water supply. To better understand just how much that will impact water security not only in regional Australia but capital cities as well in the future, it helps to see just how bad things were in the most recent drought. There are many signs of improvement, but we are just at the start of the journey to return the river to health and a sustained effort is needed to ensure we have a healthy, working river for the future. Our politicians will go to sleep here and we're probably not going to learn from this drought," Dr Wright said.
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