MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
California orders the largest water cuts on record to help ease shortages
The state of California has ordered some of the largest water cuts on record to help ease shortages during the current drought. The move affects more than 100 senior water rights holders in the state's Delta, San Joaquin and Sacramento regions, including water districts that serve thousands of farmers and others. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesI was recently in California and their idea of water restrictions has a long way to go.
Jun 13th, 2015 - 08:50 am - Link - Report abuse 0They could take a leaf out of Melbourne's book which recently survived a 10 year without running out of water.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-business/waterguzzling-californians-turn-to-dusty-australians-for-a-hand-20150410-1mib69.html
It's what you get when you build high water usage farms in a desert and depend on water that has been there for thousands of years to drive the system.
Jun 13th, 2015 - 12:07 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Australians on the other hand knew from the start they had to closely mimic nature if they were going to survive and prosper.
Bit of a no-brainer, but that's the yanks for you!
There are no people in Australia.
Jun 13th, 2015 - 01:43 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Simple like that!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpP8RfGYybg&index=5&list=FLmXPTu1f8AdGlizWNiASx2A
@1 & 2 Admittedly Australia are wizards at wáter management but the increase irrigation of farm crops in the Murray basin and subsequent run off has made the the river so saline that its estimated that the wáter supply to Adelaide will be too saline for human consumption within a decade or so.
Jun 13th, 2015 - 06:40 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Melbourne has aggravated the problem by tapping one of the main tributaries of the Murray system, the Goulbourn river.
As with California the main user is agriculture irrigation. I thought the main cause was rice production,but it appears that the main culprits are the beef industry as according to Ossie statistics it takes far more wáter on irrigated pastures to produce a kilo of beef than a kilo of cereal crops.
No doubt with Aussie savvy they have the problem well thought through even if not solved
@ 4 redp0ll
Jun 13th, 2015 - 09:41 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“the water supply to Adelaide will be too saline for human consumption within a decade or so....No doubt with Aussie savvy they have the problem well thought through even if not solved”
We looked at South Australia before we came to Uruguay.
Regrettably, the main block on 'doing something with the Murray' are the water rights holders - just the same with California.
The SA Government seemed to be held in thrall by the farmers, but that is unsurprising given the importance of the sector.
I seem to remember they have saline extractors already in use near the Adelaide coast but they are energy hungry things and expensive to maintain.
Redpoll
Jun 14th, 2015 - 12:13 am - Link - Report abuse 0The North-South Pipeline was never used. Though it was built. Melbourne hasn't tapped into the Goulbourn River. However any water removal would have been balanced by the savings of water through the Northern Victorian Irrigation Renewal Project. We have learnt past mistakes and don't just keep taking. The government spent millions upgrading farm and rural infrastructure to lessen the loss of water through seepage and evaporation. The savings became water rights of Melbourne Water but have never been piped to Melbourne.
Most of the problems with Australia's rivers and water predate the recent Millennium Drought and that is the point I am making. That drought changed the way we use and abuse water. But we can't undo more than a century of issues instantly. But slowly we are. California needs to tackle their problems with an eye on the long term future and not just this drought.
To show the difference, in 2001 Melbourne with a population of 3.36 million used 500 gigalitres per year. By 2014 this had dropped to 395 gigalitres and yet our population had increased by more than a million.
So with 25% more people we use over 20% less water. That took long term reeducation and changes in water use. Dual flush toilets, aerators on taps, restrict its in shower heads in houses and non-flush urinals in businesses are now mandatory and common.... the small things that add up to big savings over time. I think US toilets use about 3-4 times5)3 water of Australian toilets. These are easy savings before even starting on the farmers.
Good posts, all the above ( with one notable exception ).
Jun 14th, 2015 - 04:48 am - Link - Report abuse 0If predictions of global warming prove to be true (I can see no reason why not), then infrastructure adaptations of the kind described above are going to need to be commonplace.
Jun 14th, 2015 - 11:22 am - Link - Report abuse 0Adaptations for drought, flood, extreme weather events of all kinds on a very regular basis, they will become the norm in fact.
Interesting. The English told that São Paulo would die of thirst, that São Paulo would be destroyed by water shortages. And what we're seeing?
Jun 14th, 2015 - 02:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0North American know only speculate. They are so incompetent that they can not provide water its population.
Babacas!
Now now, little brass monkey , your organ grinder is calling so run along please
Jun 14th, 2015 - 06:07 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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