Drought and climate change are driving high water prices in the Murray-Darling Basin

Water prices in the southern Murray-Darling Basin have reached their highest levels since the worst of the Millennium drought more than a decade ago. These high water prices are causing much anxiety in the region, and have led the federal government to call on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to hold an inquiry into the water market. 

The receding waters of Lake Pamamaroo, in western
 NSW, in February 2019. Reduced water supply, due to
 lower rainfall and higher temperatures, has been the
 main cause of increasing water prices.

Inevitably, whenever an important good becomes more expensive – be it housing, electricity or water – there is a rush to identify potential causes and culprits. In the past few years high water prices have been blamed on foreign investors, corporate speculators, state government water-sharing rules, new almond plantings and the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

While some of these factors have had an effect on the market, they are in many ways a distraction from the simpler truth: that high water prices have mostly been caused by a lack of rain.

Read the story from The Conversation by a Senior Economist with the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES), Neal Hughes - “Drought and climate change are driving high water prices in the Murray-Darling Basin.”

The lessons we need to learn to deal with the ‘creeping disaster’ of drought

Droughts are an understood and
accepted part of the Australian
condition, but the recent decade-long
'big dry' was surely a wake-up call.
 

Droughts are a natural feature of the Australian environment. But the Millennium drought (or “Big Dry”), which ran from 1997 to 2010, was a wake-up call even by our parched standards.

The Millennium drought had major social, economic and environmental impacts. It triggered water restrictions in major cities, and prompted severe reductions in irrigation allocations throughout the vast Murray-Darling Basin.

The Millennium drought also highlighted that, compared to the rest of the world, the impacts of drought on Australia’s society and economy are particularly severe. This is mainly because our water storage and supply systems were originally designed by European settlers who failed to plan for the huge variability in Australia’s climate.

Read the piece on The Conversation by an Associate Professor of Hydroclimatology at the University of Newcastle, Anthony Kiem; a Senior Lecturer at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of New South Wales, Fiona Johnson; and an Associate Professor with the School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering at the University of Adelaide, Seth Westra - “The lessons we need to learn to deal with the ‘creeping disaster’ of drought.”

Grains industry recovers from millennium drought

A stocktake of Australia's grains sector reveals production has returned to long-term averages, with growers recovering financially from the millennium drought.

Grain Growers has published its State of the Australian Grains Industry 2016, updating its previous report from 2011.

It paints a picture of an industry transformed by deregulation and opened up to the forces of international markets.

Average grain production across the sector has increased in value by 50 per cent, to $13.5 billion in the five years to 2015, when compared to the previous five year period

Read the ABC Rural story - “Australian grain producers make strong recovery from millenniumdrought: report.”

Climate change triggered events trouble Victoria

Events that can be traced and linked directly to climate change are presently troubling many Victorians.

Today’s Melbourne Age  carries two stories, one that discusses searing heat and dry conditions in northwest Victoria and another that outlines difficulties faced by those living along the Murray River as they wrestle with the realities of a toxic algae outbreak.

In the first of the two stories, “Searing heat and big dry take toll on north-west” Victoria, rural affairs reporter, Darren Gray, alerts readers to an unfolding drama that can be easily attributable to climate change.

A farmer from near Ararat, Mr. Charlie de Fegely, was quoted as saying that even during the now infamous millennium drought some of his farm’s many dams had a little water, but now they were all totally dry.

"We've never had that scenario before. Even in the millennium drought, we went through with some dams with some water in them. This is the first time that we've been 100 per cent reliant on underground water," he said.

Algae is always present in rivers, but when the heat becomes more intense and the lack of refreshing flows resulting from heavy and steady rains, now an increasing rarity because of climate change, the torpid algae can become toxic to both humans and animals as is now the case from Albury to Barham.

In the story “Murray water alert as toxic algae outbreak spreads”, Gray reported the Incident controller for the Hume region, Steve Grant, who said blue-green algae was a naturally occurring algae living in all native waters.

Mr. Grant said one way to tackle the outbreak would be a release of fresh water from a storage upstream. "But we don't have enough water in storage to enable us to do that," he said.

The outbreak, which may take weeks to dissipate comes at an awkward time for tourist destinations along the river are popular with water skiers, campers, fishermen and other visitors, particularly over the Easter break.

California seeks drought advice from Melbourne

C

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”.