A STAGGERING 70 per cent of the world's available water resource is used for irrigation supplied by tens of thousands of kilometres of channels, limited by manual systems and poor measurement.
With the efficiency of these systems often as low as 40 per cent, it is easy to see how new sources of water can be generated for urban and irrigation through efficiency gains. This is critical to the world's food supply, The Australian reports.
The world's and Australia's food reserves are at their lowest for 30 years and both the world's and Australia's population continue to increase.
Australia is importing food from various countries to the detriment of local industry: for example, orange juice concentrate from Brazil, peaches from China and so on.
There are many reasons, apart from water shortage, that have resulted in Australia importing food, but the availability and price of water is one of them.
Julian Cribb, Adjunct Professor of Science Communication at UTS, says that at current rates, world food demand will double by 2050.
"But the amount of available water for irrigation purposes is going to halve."
He points out that one of the factors contributing to this is that cities are taking an increasing share of water resources.
"The other factor is climate change. India and western China derive their irrigation water from the glaciers of the Himalayas. At current rates of global warming, in 10-15 years these may disappear. We in Australia are not immune from climate change. Just look at the Murray Darling Basin."
He says that desalination and advanced techniques for recycling are needed.
"But worldwide there needs to be a dramatic improvement in water use efficiency in all crops."
Read more on The Australian online.
