Splash! It’s National Water Week

Drink up! This week (the third week of October) is National Water Week. Organised by the Australian Water Association (AWA), the goal of the campaign is to make a splash around the country and inspire awareness about the value of water, clean water access, water environments and water resources.

Mostly, the goal is to get people thinking about using water wisely.

The theme for 2020s Wet Week is Reimagining our Water Future.

The AWA explains: “As our population grows, this will put more stress on our water resources, so how can we reimagine the way we use and reuse water to ensure there’s enough of it in the future? How can we rethink our current water practices to help conserve valuable water resources? What can we do as individuals and as communities to inspire a more sustainable water future?”

Water is a valuable resource on which we are all reliant.

The natural gas industry, like the rest of us, is dedicated to protecting this precious resource.

In addition to the strict processes which are in place to ensure water safety across projects, the natural gas industry also works with communities to provide treated and tested to landholders and graziers.

In times where water levels are impacted by drought, the industry is providing safe water to be reused. In Queensland, companies in the Surat Basin region continually monitor groundwater, and the water from coal seams is treated and tested before being recycled.

Did you know that the Great Artesian Basin contain approximately 65,000,000 Gigalitres (GL) of water (this is the equivalent to 130,000 Sydney Harbours)? The industry has steadily extracted 60GL a year through coal seam gas. More than 90 per cent of this is then treated to the strictest water quality standards and reused.

It can be reused in many ways, such as passing it onto graziers for the livestock, being put back into programs to reduce using freshwater and managed aquifer recharge. This has proven vitally important for individual farmers like Simon from Condabri (click here to read his story), or for entire regions.

Learn more about National Water Week at https://www.awa.asn.au/AWA_MBRR/About_AWA/National_Water_Week.aspx

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