Jones, Roger ORCID: 0000-0001-6970-2797 (2008) Water resources. In: An Overview of Climate Change adaptation in Australian Primary Industries : Impacts, Options and Priorities. Strokes, C. J and Howden, S. M, eds. CSIRO, Canberra, pp. 273-305.

Abstract

About 10% or so of national rainfall ends up as runoff, with <1% (15,000 GL annually) estimated to contribute to groundwater (Dunlop et al. 2001b). In 2004–05 an estimated 2.8 million GL of rainfall fell, with a 9% runoff of 242,800 GL (ABS 2006). The 2004–05 water year was relatively dry, following on from a further three dry years including the 2002–03 drought. The amount and proportion would be higher in a wet year. Australia has one of the highest per capita water consumption rates in the world (1.31 ML/person/year; NLWRA 2001). 79,800 gigalitres (GL) of water was extracted from the environment for use in 2004–05 (ABS 2006), up from 72,400 in 2000–01 (ABS 2004). Most of this extracted water was used in-stream, mainly for hydroelectricity generation, so was available for re-use further downstream. Water consumption was 21,700 GL water in 2000–01 (ABS 2004) but fell to 18,800 GL in 2004–05 (ABS 2006). More than two-thirds (15,000 GL or 69%) of this water was used by the agricultural sector in 2000–01 (ABS 2004) falling to 12,200 (65%) in 2004–05 (ABS 2006). Most of this decline was in agricultural consumption and the one-third or so used for urban and industrial purposes remained fairly constant. This shows the higher security nature of water for urban and industry compared to agriculture. Urban and industrial supply is unlikely to decline significantly until water restrictions have been in place for some time. Under a regime of capped allocations of general and low security water, agriculture is much more exposed to fluctuations in supply.

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