A call for more urgent action to address the water crisis in Perth and Western Australia (WA) was given today by climate change expert Dr John Dodson, Head of the Institute for Environmental Research at ANSTO in Sydney’s south. The call to action took place at a media briefing (Novotel Langley) where he shared recent water research outcomes and objectives for WA.
“The crisis in south-western Australia is getting worse,” said Dr Dodson. “This region relies heavily on groundwater to feed its water demand but the age of this water and its replenishment rate is not known.
“The key to good water management planning is fully understanding the water source and accurately mapping current and past patterns of rainfall to more clearly predict future rainfall cycles.”
Professor Dodson, who worked for many years as a researcher in Western Australia, outlined ANSTO research projects which will use nuclear tools, like carbon dating, to help accurately understand the water resources of south-western Australia, which has one of Australia’s most rapid population growth rates.
“ANSTO has unique skills and can age ground water in order to understand whether the water we are drinking is a year old or a hundred years old,” he said. “If it’s too old it means its not recharging and then it’s clear there are supply problems which will need to be addressed sooner rather than later.
“In WA most of the surface water resources are already fully exploited and Perth urgently needs to identify sound ways of ensuring water security,” said Professor Dodson.
“Rainfall in the Perth region has also decreased in recent decades and in the long term is expected to continue declining,” he said. “As part of the current water solution groundwater is heavily utilised and desalination, which is an energy guzzler, is another key source.
However the link between rainfall and surface water is poorly understood for the region.”
ANSTO is studying of cave stalagmites in the region and this work will help understand past rainfall patterns to help predict the future.
“If the stalagmite water drip factor is a mirror of modern rainfall monitoring, by dating older stalagmites we will be able to map rainfall patterns over thousands of years and establish the big picture of past rainfall cycles to ultimately produce better rainfall predictions,” he said.
For environmental issues, at ANSTO nuclear technology is used to help understand these problems and help provide solutions. These nuclear tools also give insight into the problems of the planet such as climate change, water resource sustainability and air pollution.
Published: 15/10/2008