The Current Water Crisis in Rural NSW

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The current water crisis in rural NSW
New South Wales is a state located in southern Australia, well known for its National parks and
coastal cities. The State is bordered by Queensland to the north, Victoria to the south and South
Australia to the west (Troy, 2018). The NSW coast borders the Tasman Sea to the east. The
population of New South Wales by the end of 2018 was 8,023, 700, which was accounting
31.96% of the Australian population. The greater parts of New South Wales experiences semi-
arid to the arid climate. The annual rainfall ranges from 150 to 500mm in most parts of NSW.
Greater parts of rural New South Wales are currently experiencing severe water shortage, with
the supply of water being limited to the critical needs, there are no new allocations for the
majority of the rural commercial users specifically the irrigators and the current records low
inflows to the major storages. Across NSW agricultural activities accounts for approximately
80% of water use depending on the current conditions such as drought (Briggs, 2011).
The rural area across New South Wales are facing acute water shortages as rivers winter, dam
levels dive and now the majority of the rural NSW drilling bores and some of the areas are
trucking water due to the severe drought which is being experienced in the greater parts of the
NSW. Among the most severely hit area are the White Cliffs and Wilcannia on the lower Darling
River.

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Fig 1: Cooling off amid extreme heat in the Barwon-Darling River near Bourke in January.
Majority of the rural areas in NSW have been forced to depend on borehole water. According to
(McTavish, 2013)there is an acute water crisis in the substantial amount of NSW. The figure
below is the so-called the Northern Wet season which starts from October to March and it
brought in very little rains to ease the drought which is being experienced in the rural NSW.

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Fig 2: Northern Wet season, October to march
Effects of the water crisis in rural NSW
The mass fish kills which took place in Darling river near Menindee has already drawn national
attention and has driven two scientific investigations to carry out research on the possible effects
of the water crisis. From the studies carried out, more fish kills are likely to occur and the local
communities will continue to struggle unless it starts raining. For White Cliffs and Wilcannia,
the ‘substantial water shortage’ is due to lack of surface and groundwater (McTavish, 2013).
The local rural files have expressed their fear of running out of the water to fight the fires in case
they break out in facilities such as hospitals. Also, many homes in rural NSW may also soon lose
raw water supply for flushing their toilets (Briggs, 2011).
Measures in place