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alifornia is looking
to Melbourne for solutions to prolonged drought, after researchers find
strategies implemented during the 2010 drought were successful.
The Millennium Drought in southeastern Australia forced
Greater Melbourne, a city of 4.3 million people, to successfully implement
innovations that hold critical lessons for water-stressed regions around the
world, according to findings by UC Irvine, the University of Melbourne and the
Federation University Australia.
It wasn’t a new pipeline over the mountains, special rate
hikes or a $6 billion desalination plant that kept faucets running. Rather,
integrated outreach by utilities and agencies required to work together led to
a culture shift among ordinary water users, according to the work published
online today in the WIREs Water journal.
By the time Australia’s worst-ever recorded drought ended in
2010, one in three Melbourne households had a rainwater tank, similar to a rain
barrel in the U.S.
Read the University of Melbourne, Melbourne Newsroom story - “California looks to Melbourne for drought-coping strategies”.
