Drought threatens drinking water for a million Australians

Up to a million people in Australia could face a shortage of drinking water if the country’s drought continues, a report on the state of the nation’s largest river system revealed Sunday.

The report said the situation was critical in the Murray-Darling system, which provides water to Australia’s “food bowl”, a vast expanse of land almost twice as big as France that runs down the continent’s east coast.

“We are in real trouble in the Murray-Darling basin,” Climate Change Minister Penny Wong told Channel Nine television.

The report said the Murray-Darling system, accounting for more than 40 percent of the gross value of Australia’s agricultural production, should provide enough drinking water for 2008-09.

But the report from senior federal and state government officials warned there could be problems supplying drinking water after that if rains did not come.

A report by the nation’s top scientists this month said Australia was in for a tenfold increase in heat waves as climate change pushes temperatures up.

It found exceptionally hot years, which used to occur once every 22 years, would occur every one or two years, virtually making drought a permanent part of the Australian landscape.

AFP