The management of water in Australia is in a state of crisis. The most obvious point of reference is the Murray/Darling Basin.

The Rudd government is fuelling the crisis through caution and a mistaken belief that a partnership between private enterprise and government is possible over the management of water. It is not.

Water is a rapidly dwindling national resource. Sectional interests such as the mining and cotton industries are not going to consider the national interest nor the rights and entitlements of the rest of the population when making decisions relating to the commercial use of 'their' water. Common sense dictates that water cannot be separated from the land that it flows through or beneath which it is captive.

Seminal article by Amanda Hodge (ABC) first published March 2001, warning of the likely impacts of  water-harvesting in the Murray-Darling Basin. Sadly, her fears have proven to be well-founded.

Up in Queensland's land of cotton, downstream water woes are soon forgotten. And, as Amanda Hodge reports, the state Government is still looking away.

Even 600m above ground level, no map reference or global positioning equipment is required to pinpoint exactly where Queensland's cotton country lies. Amid the natural chaos of an Australian horizon looms a bizarrely ordered patchwork of hazy white cotton interspersed by vast belts of water. Euphemistically called "ring tanks'' or turkey nest dams, these water storages, which look like lakes, mark the beginning of the St George and Dirranbandi cotton fields.

"I am convinced that ... we will run out of water long before we run out of fuel." Nestle Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe

The head of the water program of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Mark Smith, recently indicated that two thirds of the world's population will be affected by water shortages by 2025. I'll say that again: two thirds of the world's population. Just staggering given that is only 15 years away.

Given that Australia is the world's driest inhabited continent I was very quickly shaken from my torpor. Is Australia ready for 2025? Perhaps one should be checking one's migratory options?

(Courtesy ABC News Online15th May 2009)

Water is a unique public commodity, but the New South Wales Government is opening the Sydney and Hunter water markets to multinational privateers, writes lawyer Kellie Tranter*.

"As the most essential life-sustaining substance and the most critical input to economies around the globe, water is the only commodity that has absolutely no substitute at any price. This fundamental fact creates an intractable demand for water and has historically made global hydrocommerce a stable, non-cyclical, low-risk investment." - Summit Global Management

If it's good enough for international marketeers like Summit Global Management to see water as a "stable, non-cyclical, low-risk investment", why isn't it good enough for the NSW State Government?