Water security in Australia

Water security in Australia has become a major concern over the course of the late 20th and early 21st century as a result of population growth, severe drought, fears of the effects of global warming on Australia, environmental degradation from reduced environmental flows, competition between competing interests such as grazing, irrigation and urban water supplies, and competition between upstream and downstream users.

Water reform was first placed on the national agenda at the 1994 Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting when a strategic framework was devised. As the knowledge of surface and groundwater systems grew and the awareness of the significance of sustainable water markets increased, further water reform was agreed to at the 2004 COAG meeting, under a national blueprint known as the National Water Initiative (NWI).

Australia can be divided into 12 major drainage divisions. For example, the Murray-Darling drainage division consists of the Murray River basin and the Darling River basin. Three of these drainage divisions account for 87% of the water that Australia consumes – the North East Coast division, the South East Coast division, and the Murray-Darling. This means that the supply of water within Australia is highly concentrated, and any defect to one of these major water divisions can cause major water security issues.

Since the turn of the 21st century, there have been attempts to establish a privatised water market in Australia, with the state of Victoria acting as a model for other states. Many political parties, community groups, NGO's and other groups and people see the privatisation of water as a denial of basic human rights on behalf of State and Federal Governments. Water privatisation is a highly controversial topic and touches on the much broader arguments for and against the private control of formerly public services.

...
Wikipedia