Production, Consumption and Waste

Water Resources

Water is essential for life. To create reliable water supplies in a highly variable climate, inland waters have been transformed to harvest, convey and store water. Today the river systems are environmentally degraded. Over the past 11 years, serious rainfall deficiencies have reduced inflows to storages 30–60% below long-term averages, and flow into the Murray and Melbourne storages reached record lows in 2006. The use of groundwater and recycled water has increased but Victoria remains dependent on surface water, which accounted for 84% of water harvested in 2006-07.

Irrigated agriculture accounts for about three quarters of water harvested in Victoria, whereas Melbourne accounts for about 10%. The effects of water scarcity on consumption have been marked. The area of land irrigated decreased by about one third in 2007, and Melbourne’s per capita water consumption was 34% lower in 2006-07 compared to the average of the 1990s. Demand management strategies and major infrastructure programs, such as the desalination plant for Melbourne, pipelines to connect water supply systems and irrigation modernisation, have been implemented in response to these pressures.

This section presents an overview of Victoria’s water sources, and a description of major water supply schemes and urban water harvesting. The pressures that past and present uses of water resources place on the environment are described, and an overview of management responses and recommendations relating to water resources in Victoria are presented.

Part 3.2 Water Resources (PDF - 15.0 MB)