Taming Australia
Recent reforms enabling market-based selling of water rights in Australia have dramatically increased the efficiency of the country’s water supply system, allowing surface water usage to decline 70 percent in recent dry years with just a 1 percent drop in agricultural production on irrigated lands. A pair of Australian water experts described the reforms Friday (Feb. 18) in the Geological Museum at an event sponsored by the Harvard University Center for the Environment and the Harvard Water Program. Australia’s boom-and-bust water landscape has been amply demonstrated in recent months, with several years of drought giving way to torrential rains and the most damaging floods in the nation’s history, punctuated by a monstrous early February cyclone that slammed the country with yet more rain, high winds, and flooding tides. Will Fargher, general manager of the Australian National Water Commission’s Water Markets and Efficiency Group, and Chris Arnott, managing director of Alluvium Consulting, which advises...