2020-04-02_Science_Illustrated

D

ay Zero is a term you might

hear in a Hollywood disaster

film, but in Australian towns

affected by drought, Day Zero

comes when the authorities

finally shut down the local water supply after

years of severe drought. To some Australian

towns suffering under The Big Dry, that day

has been fast approaching in the last year.

Such water problems are not unique to

Australia. A global water crisis is affecting an

estimated one-third of the world’s ground

water deposits, created by a pattern of

ever-increasing water consumption despite

extended periods of severe drought.

Australia, South Africa and India are all

particularly affected, but according to the UN

more than four billion people live in regions

suffering water shortages for at least one

month a year. Factor in the world’s rising and

increasingly urban population, plus the pros-

pect of a warmer climate, and the problem

will only worsen in decades to come.

Scientists are trying to find solutions,

developing new technologies that could

conjure up pure drinking water from even

the world’s driest water taps.

The Big Dry

Bone-dry river beds and empty reservoirs

have become the new normal in too many

Australian towns. In New South Wales, the

32 months from January 2017 to August 2019

were the driest on record.

The situation is so severe that in August

2019, the authorities were prepared to spend

ten million dollars saving fish. The year

before that they had relaxed rules for shoot-

ing kangaroos because increasing numbers

of roos were encroaching on farmland in

search of water and food. In September 2019,

the Southern Downs in Queensland intro-

duced critical water restrictions allowing a

maximum of 100 litres of water per person

per day. Even when people comply with the

restrictions, towns still run out of water.

It happened on Monday 13 January 2020

to the 5000+ residents of Stanthorpe. The

water officially ran out – Day Zero had

arrived. The next day the entire water needs

of this fruit-growing town began arriving by

truck, 42 water loads a day, shipped to Stan-

thorpe’s dam from another dam near

Warwick, in an operation estimated to cost

$800,000 a month. But this wasn’t a long-

term solution. The dams needed to receive

significant rains by August, otherwise the

secondary supply would be exhausted, leav-

ing Southern Downs to look elsewhere for

this ever-dwindling resource.

“This is the worst drought on record,” said

Tracy Dobie, who has been Mayor of the

Southern Downs Region since 2016. “When

you see a blue cloudless sky, dry soil, and

dead vegetation, it is hard to be positive.”

But they try. Day Zero didn’t stop the Stan-

thorpe Show taking place in the town at

Some of Australia’s dams have been topped up by February’s storms, but elsewhere farmland

has been baking through years of drought. In some places, the water supply officially ran dry.

The long wait for water

FACTS

DAILY WATER CONSUMPTION

PER CAPITA

USA: 3304 litres

AUSTRALIA: 1926 litres

GERMANY: 814 litres

SOURCE: Statista 2020

using latest available info (Australia

2017, Germany 2016, USA 2015)

David Littleproud, Australia’s

Minister for Water Resources,,

inspects a dry water reservoir

in October 2019.

MICK TSIKAS/RITZAU SCANPIX

TECHNOLOGY WATER