Australia is a gorgeous country with one the world’s nicest beaches and breath-taking wild life sceneries. Yet, with weather changes and global warming, the world water crisis has hit a severe point in Australia’s largest cities. With a lacking contribution from Mother Nature’s rainfall, the local citizens were faced with serious water restrictions.  A couple of years ago the country was faced with continuous drought situation and the government felt obliged to implement a new water policy in order to comply with the water crisis that has been taking over their country and the rest of the world. In 2004, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) signed a new policy in order to improve water management, called the National Water Initiative (NWI).  Two years later, the Western Australia Government joined by the Tasmanian government both decided to take part in this agreement. This successful initiative is serving as inspiration to other countries suffering from the world water crisis.

Under this brand new initiative, the governments are fully committing to “prepare water plans with provision for the environment, to deal with over-allocated or stressed water systems, to introduce registers of water rights and standards without forgetting the need to expand in the trade of water in order to improve pricing for water storage and delivery” (Source: http://www.nwc.gov.au/www/html/117-national-water-initiative.asp?intSiteID=1).  This plan of action that has been launched a couple of years ago, has forced concrete action, seeing citizens respecting the water use limits and farmers installing drip irrigation systems. Moreover, Australia recognizes the connection between surface and groundwater resources and has pushed forward the need to develop a single management system that connects these two water supplies.  The country desperately needs a common definition of sustainable groundwater extraction rates in order to avoid a situation of over-exploitation that could be disastrous in the near future.  With the recent long running droughts, the need to manage groundwater could be crucial to the survival of ecosystems and human beings. Recent assessments and studies seem to believe that a system that manages the connection between surface and groundwater trading regimes could offer increase results when it comes to water management issues. Only time will tell, if such system will effectively be implemented in this arid yet gorgeous continent.

Governments need to put together a common water management registry database in order to accelerate results and unify all the working resources. With the growth of water trade between states like Tasmania, South Australia or Victoria, these stakeholders have introduced “statutory registers to handle the registration and trade of water access entitlements consistent with the NWI” (Source: http://www.nwc.gov.au/www/html/121-water-markets-and-trading.asp?intSiteID=1).  The National Water Initiative has launched a real urban water reform in order to ameliorate water supplies, encourage trade between the urban and rural sector, encourage and prompt water supply innovation and research and finally reach improved water prices. A considerable proportion of water in urban areas is provided thanks to rainwater harvesting techniques; rainfall is collected and stored in reservoirs where it get purified.  While the rainy season seems to have been taking a break, other option such as re-use, recycling or desalination have been explored. Recycling for non-drinking purposes has been adopted all over Australia and “household recycling of greywater is also increasingly being adopted by Australian residents to provide a constant source during times of drought and water restriction” (Source: http://www.nwc.gov.au/www/html/194-supply-options.asp).

Without those strict measures and innovative research, Melbourne risk to have been completely dry today. The country exemplary forward-looking and efficient attitude has been an inspiration to other areas around the globe suffering from similar problems such as the state of California. This American state is one of the fastest growing in the country, and its residents depend on the Colorado River for potable water supplies. With the population continuously growing, state officials have decided to meet up with experts from Australia in order to gather advice and opinions about launching a similar water initiative.