China is trying to divert water from the south to the north in their
country with the largest dam project in the history of the world. They
are digging canals and diverting rivers, even passing them through
mountain.
Didnt Australia build a resivoir in the North on top of a mt in the 50's
or 60's?

Istanbul Turkey is almost out of water,,
we do study the problems
it just doesnt take presidence on the news like GW's war
And lord knows that sucks up the bucks that could be spent doing good
all over

Thats the lead by example I keep saying Americas leadership should
take..
One day if its not too late America might actually elect a true
leader.... maybe??

Web CNN.world.com

Australian drought intensifies
Monday, October 28, 2002 Posted: 10:34 PM EST (0334 GMT)

((PLEASE NOTE THE DATE OF THE ARTICLE...and now in 2007, nothing has
changed..it has gotten worse..much worse..))

Drought stricken farmers are facing financial ruin


MELBOURNE, Australia (CNN) -- For the first time in twenty years,
Australia's second biggest city faces water restrictions as a drought
ravaging the nation's east continues to take its toll.

The worsening drought, which has already severely affected Australia's
important agricultural industry, will more than halve the winter grain
harvest, according to a revised official forecast.

The Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics (ABARE) has
tipped production of the four major winter crops to drop to 14.8 million
tonnes this season from a record 34.1 million tones the year before.

That represents a slashing of 0.7 percent off economic growth, the
report said.

The largest crop, wheat, is expected to drop by almost 58 percent, or
13.8 million tones, to 10.1 million tones as dry weather and rising
temperatures continued to hit the wheat belt. (Grain harvest halved)

Water curbs
In Melbourne, Australia's second biggest city with a population of
around 3.5 million, curbs on the use of water will be introduced on
Friday as the city's water reserves continue to dwindle.

The restrictions include limits on watering lawns and gardens, filling
pools and washing cars. Fines will be imposed on offenders, Victorian
state Premier Steve Bracks said on Tuesday.

Water storages in the state are at 54.1 percent, but further
restrictions may be imposed as summer sets in.

It is the first time since 1982 that water curbs have been imposed in
Melbourne.

Much of Australia's east is in the grips of the worst drought in two
decades, with many areas not seeing rain for up to six months and
forecasters not predicating any significant rainfall in the foreseeable
future.

In New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, 93 percent of the
state is now officially in drought with many areas the driest they've
been since records began more than 100 years ago.

Bushfire fears

Australia's east is seeing the worst drought in two decades



With Australia's hot summer months just around the corner, the drought
has added to fears of a more savage than usual bushfire season.

Already dozens of scrub and bushfires have sprung up in NSW and
Queensland, marking an early start to the bushfire period.

One of the worst bushfires occurred in Victoria and South Australia in
1983 in the midst of a particularly bad drought.

WOW!!
I had no idea it was that bad,,,
You have taught me something today....

In a lot of ways fanta, you have shown, you have an interest, an
awareness there is more going on in the world that just who is right and
who is wrong with a war...

I am not out to critise anyone, nor any country, I am just curious to
see what others know, outside of their own country..

well im surounded by shoot outs were im from so thats wats goin on
outside of my window...lol

You know in Lybia they found water under the Sahara desert and have
built a pipeline, that you could drive 4 Tractor trailers through side
by side.

It has alleviated their water concerns for now but they dont know for
how long or the environmental impact it will have..


I think Saudi Arabia gets their water from desalination plants,
extracting it straight from the sea.

Has Australia thought about that
They say it is expensive though

lot's of people like the pink donut!!! ?



hey gorgeous!! 15 to 9am here... and hot hot hot!!!

hottest April in 300 years......conveyor beltis almost gone and we will
fall into colder temps ..seriously colder temps and storms and flooding
in the next 10 years.... um..wonder if i shoud move to a house boat an
surf in the big one when it hits!!


xxxx beauty

I just asked this question not two minutes ago...in a conversation off
site..

How many 'de sal' plants does it take to provide irrigation for a
country to feed 20 million?

It is not the cool glass of water that is the concern it is the
agriculture...

then add the population of India, Asia, and Afrika...

and add 18 years to the population growth...

it's a big question to answer..

and where do we put the trillions of tonnes of salt produced?

Thanks Jess, my concern with the war is that it would end and we (US)
will take a real lead in creating a global community that has real
global concerns, creating a better world,
Not just ****ing it up..

Eh like they say,,
**** in one hand and wish in the other........

Those are excellent questions, Ill put my efforts in to finding out...

If you do first let me know
It would feel good to concentrate on something useful for a change...

You know when I was growing up, if there was one place in the world
America felt kin to
It was Australia, we had similar beginnings you know...

Now its hardly even mentioned..
Except Steve Irwin, America loved that guy...

Desalination refers to any of several processes that remove excess salt
and other minerals from water in order to obtain fresh water suitable
for animal consumption or irrigation, and if almost all of the salt is
removed, for human consumption. Sometimes the process produces table
salt as a by-product. Desalination of ocean water is common in the
Middle East (because of water scarcity) and the Caribbean, and is
growing fast in the USA, North Africa, Singapore, Spain, Australia and
China.[citation needed] It is used also on ships, submarines and
islands.

Desalination of brackish water is done in the United States in order to
meet treaty obligations for river water entering Mexico. Several Middle
Eastern countries have energy reserves so great that they use
desalinated water for agriculture. Saudi Arabia's desalination plants
account for about 24% of total world capacity. The world's largest
desalination plant is the Jebel Ali Desalination Plant (Phase 2) in UAE.
It uses multi-stage flash distillation, dual-purpose and it is capable
of producing 300 million cubic meters of water per year.[1]

Ill look more, that came from wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desalination

Look there Jess it has information on who, what, when, how, and where..

Even tells a little about what happens to the salt, the enviornmental
concerns, and the energy costs to operate the plant...

This is directly related to Australia's concerns....


NSW desalination plant would be built at Kurnell PRINT FRIENDLY EMAIL
STORY
PM - Monday, 11 July , 2005 18:36:00
Reporter: Andrew Geoghegan
MARK COLVIN: Is desalination the answer to Australia's water shortage
problem?

The New South Wales Government announced this evening that if Sydney's
current water crisis persisted, a desalination plant would be built at
Kurnell, in Sydney's south.

Perth has already decided on a plant to turn seawater into drinking
water by 2007.

But critics argue that the process of desalination is uneconomical and
environmentally unfriendly.

Andrew Geoghegan reports.

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: Recent rains may have washed thoughts of a looming
water crisis from the minds of some Sydneysiders, but not from the mind
of NSW Premier, Bob Carr.

He's currently in the desert oasis of Dubai, observing how the locals
use desalination to overcome an ongoing water shortage.

It's against this backdrop that the Premier announced a desalination
plant, should it be needed in Sydney, would be built at the industrial
site of Kurnell, on the southern side of Botany Bay.

BOB CARR: Why Kurnell? It's next to the ocean, you've got three
industrial sites and it's next to an oil refinery. Between the ocean and
the oil refinery, and a long way from houses, it's the best site. But we
need to work this up. We need to work this up. We need to get it ready
so that if required, we can press the button and have it producing
drinking water when needed.

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: The decision on whether the desalination plant gets
the go ahead will be made next year. If Sydney's water shortage hasn't
improved by then, the Government will commit to having the facility up
and running by 2008.

Using a process of reverse osmosis, the plant would be capable of
supplying a third of Sydney's water needs, turning sea water into half a
billion litres of drinking water.

But the project is far from popular. Most environmentalists and
economists think it's unviable and today the Prime Minister weighed into
the debate.

JOHN HOWARD: Well I do, however, know that desalination is expensive.
It's also energy intensive. I would hope that all of the recycling
options are fully explored. I do worry that the New South Wales
Government has been a little too ready to dismiss almost out of hand the
options of recycling, and I'm not convinced that the case for preferring
desalination has been strongly enough made.

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: The NSW Utilities Minister Frank Sartor maintains that
the planned plant would use a mixture of clean power and carbon credits,
to minimise greenhouse gases.

But Jeff Angel from the Total Environment Centre is not convinced.

JEFF ANGEL: The desalination plant is an act of political desperation,
born out of incompetence and incapable planning for a sustainable water
cycle by this and previous governments.

We haven't got a solution to our water problem yet, and putting it at
Kurnell, possibly alienating bushland and parkland, is not an answer.

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: But it could be the cost that eventually scuttles
future desalination plants.

Water economist, Dr John Marsden:

JOHN MARSDEN: Desalination is a very costly exercise in terms of energy
and therefore in terms of greenhouse emissions, and therefore offsets
would certainly be required.

If we pro rata up, say, the West Australian costs, we can immediately
see that even allowing for a scale efficiency, that this plant is likely
to cost $1.5 to $2 billion.

MARK COLVIN: Water economist, Dr John Marsden, ending that report from
Andrew Geoghegan.

from www.grinningplanet.com/de-salination


PUTTING WATER ON A SALT-FREE DIET
Is Desalination the Solution to Our Increasing Freshwater Shortages?
Whoever designed the human body seems to have messed up! We must drink
fresh water, but fresh water makes up less than 3% of the H2O on the
planet—and much of that is tied up in glaciers and ice caps. The salty
water in the oceans and seas makes up the rest of the planet's water.
Waiting for global warming to melt the polar ice caps definitely isn't a
sensible way to solve the planet's ever-increasing freshwater shortages,
so some areas are turning to desalination, which generates fresh water
from salt water.

There is a nearly inexhaustible supply of salt water on the planet, but
turning it into fresh water is still an expensive proposition. But as
demand for fresh water rises and outstrips supply, the cost of getting
fresh water from traditional sources—rivers, lakes, groundwater—goes up.
Getting water from desalination plants is becoming more economically
competitive. The municipal water supply for many Caribbean islands and
Arabian Gulf states already comes mainly from desalination.

So, is desalination the magic bullet for water shortages? Not really. In
addition to the cost of removing the salt from the water—it's still
roughly three times more expensive than supplying natural fresh
water—consider the following drawbacks:

Salinity rise: The leftover concentrated salt water is injected back
into the ocean, causing the local salinity to rise, which can create
problems for some ocean creatures.

Chemical pollution: Chemicals must still be used to pre-treat the source
water, and de-fouling chemicals must be used to clean and remove
organisms from the reverse-osmosis system.

Energy use: Desalination is energy-intensive—much more so than pumping
available fresh water—so more electricity is needed, causing more
pollution from electric power plants.

Logistics: Desalinated water is currently only practical and affordable
for municipalities relatively near a source of salt water.
The global demand for fresh water makes increased use of desalination
plants seem almost inevitable. There are, however, other measures that
can help us make the most of our natural freshwater supplies and
minimize the future economic and environmental costs of desalination:

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2005/s1411832.htm

This site,, hell you are a smart woman
google Australia desalination plants..
Lots of articles....

Fanta your information is great!!!

and relevant...however, the planned de-sal plant at Kurnell, next to the
nuclear power station, (go figure), will provide Sydney with household
utility water...

How will agriculture, which is not coastal, be supported?

It is not the cool glass of water that concerns me too much right
now.... GLOBALLY, it is the agriculture, the food on the table of many
nations, that concerns me..