https://www.noticer.news/australia-mass-immigration-water-security-crisis/Australia facing water crisis due to mass immigration
December 29, 2024
The Noticer
Australia’s water security is at risk due to rampant mass immigration-driven population growth which is continuing at “third world rates”, new research shows.
A report commissioned by Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) and published last month found that water demand is outstripping improvements in the efficiency of household water use, making cities more vulnerable to extended droughts.
The authors said that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find new efficiencies while water demand has exceeded supply by the conventional means of rainfall and groundwater since the early 2000s, all while the continent is becoming dryer.
“State governments and water utilities are turning to desalination of seawater to augment water supply to meet population growth. Yet desalination is hugely expensive. Per litre of water, desalination is at least 2.5 times the cost of rain-fed dam water, which means much higher water bills for households and businesses,” author Dr Jonathan Sobels said.
The report found that future population growth will require adding up to 1,450 gigalitres to annual water supply in capital cities in coming decades – the equivalent of the total volume currently supplied each year to Sydney, Melbourne and Perth combined.
The warning came just weeks after Sydney Water warned that it will increase water prices by 50% over the next five years in response to population growth.
According to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, 666,800 people immigrants arrived during the last financial year, down 9.8% from last year’s figure of 737,200 – the highest two years on record – with most coming from India, China and the Philippines.
In the year to June this year Australia accepted an estimated 87,600 Indians, 75,830 Chinese, and 36,830 people from the Philippines, while during the 2023 financial year 108,140 Indians, 82,240 Chinese, and 47,220 Filipinos arrived.
But despite mass immigration driving housing and rental crises and being unpopular with a majority of voters, neither major party is prepared to make major cuts, with Opposition leader Peter Dutton has backtracked on a promise to cut migration, while Labor says it wants house prices to keep increasing.