Water resources in Australia and Oceania

Australia and Oceania GROUP 4 Wiktoria Turczyn – Poland Sylwia Zamora – Poland Magdalena Chudek – Poland Alicja Toborek – Poland Małgorzata Heller - Poland Richard Aguiar Maduro - Spain Jennifer Alonso Méndez - Spain Sergio Barrena Expósito - Spain Andrea Bolaños Gómez - Spain Álvaro Fernández Rodríguez - Spain Alejandro González González - Spain Mayerlin Jimenez Hormiga - Spain Nick - Germany

Water in Australia and Oceania Australia is a country with limited access to water. In spite of the enormity of Australia, majority of rivers apart from 6 is shorter than 1000 km. 30% of the Australia coastline is on the Indian Ocean, and only 9% on the Pacific Ocean.

Underground waters and alternative sources of water To serve the purpose of retention of water and for hydroenergetic purposes a few reservoirs were built at the state border of the New South Wales and Victoria. Two cities, Albury in New South Wales and Wodonga in Victoria, use the Hume Weir reservoir for economical purposes. There are 70 reservoirs in Australia. The oldest dam functioning in Australia is the Lower Dam, being 18 m high. About 75% of reservoirs came into existence exclusively, or above all to serve the needs of the irrigation. Thus, 1,5 mln ha of land area can be used for agricultural needs.

Drinking water Water is a problem in some areas of Australia, for example in South Australia where the only significant source of water is the Murray River and the great reservoirs built in order to accumulate water from winter to summer.