News

State of the Water Sector report

Posted on 17 April, 2011 in Stornoway News

Water conservation is a critical topic for not only Australia but the world. At Stornoway, we take water very seriously. In fact, we built a business around it.  Like the Australian Water Association, we know that sustaining this natural resource is one of the most important issues we face.

How we are managing water now and into the future was the focus for a recently released report from the Australian Water Association (AWA) and Deloittes.

The State of the Water Sector report surveyed those working in water management and conservation to better understand issues and challenges facing the industry and how they are being addressed. More than 1160 responses were received nation-wide.

The survey identified 3 key issues facing the sector:

Water sustainability

Water security (how we ensure reliability and quality of supply)

Water scarcity and planning.

Also identified were the top 3 things that could be done to meet future water needs:

Recycling more water

Utilising stormwater as a source of supply

Raising the price of water to reflect its scarcity.

Other points identified through the survey were:

Only 25% of respondents felt water sustainability is currently handled well

This compares to 55% believing water security is well managed and 41% believing water scarcity and planning is managed well

60% think urban water infrastructure is well maintained but only 27% think the same for rural water infrastructure

87% of respondents believe climate change is a moderate or significant threat to the sustainable management of water

Nearly 60% feel the water sector isn’t addressing climate change issues very well (or at all)

Three-quarters of respondents feel future rural or agricultural water suppliers aren’t being well planned

Nearly half believe we’re not planning well for future urban water supplies

79% saw community resistance as the main barrier to the wider use of recycled water, closely followed by politics at 72%

In the next 5 years, respondents feel adapting to climate change will overtake water scarcity as the second most important issue to address.

If you’d like to read more, please click here to download the full preliminary report, courtesy of the AWA and Deloittes.

To learn more about Stornoway’s expertise in water and wastewater treatment and water recycling, please click here.

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