Australia’s growing cities and shifting climate demand smarter, cleaner and more resilient water systems. The question isn’t if we need change, but how fast we can act.
Securing a clean, reliable water supply on the world’s driest inhabited continent has always been a national imperative. But now the stakes are higher.
Contamination of our water supply is a concern, with perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), or “forever chemicals”, being detected in catchments such as Sydney’s Blue Mountains – raising questions about safety, regulation and trust. And PFAS is just the beginning; improved detection capabilities has prompted a wider conversation about water treatment, transparency and long-term health.
Meanwhile, population growth is placing unprecedented pressure on Australia’s water systems. As our urban centres swell, so too does demand for water; not just for homes, but for cooling cities, supporting green spaces, and future-proofing against floods and droughts.
Keep scrolling to watch a video with water expert Corinne Cheeseman.
With climate change making rainfall patterns increasingly unpredictable, water planners are looking to climate-resilient sources such as purified recycled water – which comes with social rather than technical challenges.
Community acceptance is still a challenge when it comes to drinking purified recycled water, even though global examples show that safe, treated water is more than possible – it’s already happening.
To address these challenges, the systems and thinking that underpin water infrastructure need to evolve.
But beyond technology, integration and collaboration are necessary to water sustainability. Engineers, planners, utilities and communities all have a role to play in designing circular, resilient systems that don’t just supply water, but sustain ecosystems and livable cities.
In the video below, watch CEO of the Australian Water Association Corinne Cheeseman lay out the path ahead for Australia’s water future.
Produced & edited by Joseph Harding, interview by Chloe Hava.
Explore the impact of plastic pollution on rivers – and why it’s an environmental problem engineers must tackle – in this EA OnDemand webinar.
I agree with many of the comments made by Corinne, but I suggest the focus is much broader than water supplies for cities and towns. Water security for regional areas will be increasingly problematic under climate change. Rural properties reliant on rainwater to fill tanks and dams will endure extended periods of shortage, potentially leading to new water distribution systems or movement away from farming. Irrigated agriculture in regions like the Murray-Darling Basin will face disruption and potentially see widespread change. The challenge is undeniable, and it is there for all parts of our country, not just the cities.
Hope the 9,000GL dam on the Burdekin R at Mt Foxton get considered. At 350-380m we can gravity feed 3,500 GL/yr when required to Qld including upper Darling!! Just google “Foxton-dam-john” and all is revealed!! Cheers, John
Dear Ms Cheeseman,
Your video message is very apt for raising the concerns of water and how climate change is impacting water availability.Undeniably, structuring PPPs to formulate sustainable long-term solutions for water resilience in the catchment basin is an approach that has major benefits, particularly in maximising the economic value of water. Conserved water is the cheapest source of water, and as agriculture is the largest user of freshwater, it would make the most of the circular economy, by financing solutions that reduce the non-beneficial use of water in the catchment basin, as in “evaporation” loss. It would be highly economical to look into this facet, which can be beneficial for all of society, impacting water scarcity, food security, biodiversity and not only the water right holders.
Thanks for this video. There is a need for creative, critical and systems thinking in the water and other utility sectors. And the role that water plays across multiple industries is paramount for future sustainability.
The video does not appear to address demand-reduction, which can be cheaper than augmenting supply such as through water reuse, especially where high purity is required. Much progress has been made in the agricultural sector through schemes such as drip irrigation replacing furrows, and enclosing open drains to reduce evaporation.
In the domestic sector, the WELS scheme fails in that zero water-using appliances are not rated: e.g composting or dry toilets have no rating, whereas they should rightly have the highest rating, which means those appliances are absent from public awareness.
Furthermore, water should be fit-for-purpose, not over-treated: it is not necessary to use desalinated water to flush toilets when, say, brackish/saline groundwater is available, if the sewage is not reused (see Hong Kong as an example).
Also to be considered is the reduction of treatment costs by collecting separately waters of different qualities (e.g. greywater, black water, industrial water). Toilets that collect urine separately from solids is one example (see Sweden as an example of ecological sanitation).