Sydney’s water storages plunge as population explodes

By Leith van Onselen

With NSW declared 100% in drought:

The nosedive in Sydney’s water storages “is even steeper than going into the Millennium Drought”, according to The SMH:

As Sydney closes in on its driest autumn and winter since 2006 during the depth of the Millennium Drought, the city’s storages are at 65 per cent, down a quarter in 12 months…

“The nosedive [in water storage levels] is even steeper than going into the Millennium Drought”… Stuart Khan, a professor at the University of NSW’s School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, said…

Storages held enough water to supply the city’s population “for another two years – even without any rain at all over that period,” he said, adding that authorities “have planned for drought conditions”.

Determining how fast dam levels will drop hinges on water use, catchment rainfall and evaporation losses. At current rates, that 60 per cent level would be reached in about six months but at 0.8 percentage-point rate, it would be hit by early January – both before the desal plant will produce water…

The minister “has chronically underestimated the threat and risks of drought”, Mr Minns said. “Labor is demanding clarity on the water restrictions timetable.”

Justin Field, the Greens water spokesman, said “It makes sense to bring in stage 1 water restrictions earlier to reduce the likelihood of more extreme restrictions down the track”.

As usual, there’s no mention that Sydney has added nearly one million people in only the past 13-years. Nor that the city’s population is projected to balloon by another 1.73 million people over the next 20-years on the back of mass immigration, at the same time as droughts become more common because of climate change:

Around one million of this projected population growth is also expected to occur in Sydney’s West, whose water supply is already buckling:

Documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph can reveal WaterNSW and Sydney Water have voiced concerns that Sydney’s urban sprawl and booming population are putting increasing pressure on the water system, and steps need to be urgently taken to ensure Sydney is not hit by a water shortage.

WaterNSW has also revealed that housing developments built too close to pipelines and canals in Western Sydney have “already resulted in impacts to the water quality”. “Increasing urbanisation, particularly in western and southwestern Sydney, have resulted in increased pressure on the integrity of critical water supply infrastructure, namely the Warragamba Pipeline and the Upper Canal,” the documents state…

WaterNSW says that housing and land developments need to start considering the impact building is having on water supply. It is investigating “water augmentation strategies” to service the booming population…

Water scarcity is the elephant in the room of the population debate, and an issue Australia’s mass immigration ‘Big Australia’ boosters conveniently ignore.

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