Press Statement: Nationally significant water shortfall requires nationally significant response

Yet another period of high temperatures and low rainfall puts huge pressure on our water environment and the species that rely on it. Taking water out of rivers already suffering from low flows and high temperatures can spell disaster for our critically endangered migratory salmon and other iconic river species and habitats.

What the National Drought Group rightly calls a “nationally significant water shortfall” demands a nationally significant response. Everyone needs to play their part in minimising its devastating impacts.

Public water use has reduced significantly with the hosepipe bans; we need water companies to play their part in reducing leakage from pipes and we really need to reframe our vision of our nation as water-rich. As our rainfall patterns change and drought and storms become more common, it is imperative that we capture the rainwater where it lands, on farmland and in cities. This allows rainwater to filter into aquifers – the natural underground reservoirs that feed our rivers and water supply systems.

We need to build more resilience into our rivers and their catchment areas with nature-based solutions at scale, such as: healthy soils that allow water to filter into the ground and not rush off taking the soil with it; riverside tree planting to provide shade and further slow the flow of water; wetlands to store and slowly release water, and re-wiggling streams to raise the water table and purify pollutants.

We also need to finally implement the use of rainwater rather than drinking water where we can, such as car washing, gardening, washing pets, filling paddling pools, and flushing the loo. Other water-stressed countries have used this approach for decades and we need to join that party.

Mark Lloyd, Chief Executive