Water in the World: Accessing Water

You might not give it more than a passing thought, but groundwater is a vital freshwater resource. In Australia alone, the reserves of groundwater help to earn the nation a steady A$34 billion a year from mining, food production and manufacturing. But it’s also a vulnerable resource. Worldwide, about 1.7 billion people live in regions where groundwater is under stress, 60% of them in India and China. Read through this article to learn more.

Groundwater is the water found underground in the cracks and spaces in soil, sand and rock. It is stored in and moves slowly through geologic formations of soil, sand and rocks called aquifers. Read through this website to learn more.

When rain falls, some of it flows across the surface of the land and accumulates in rivers, lakes, and eventually the ocean. But some of the water seeps into the ground and accumulates within cracks or pores in the rocks (aquifers), forming groundwater resources, which in turn also eventually flow into rivers, lakes or the ocean.

Groundwater accounts for 99% of all liquid freshwater on Earth. However, this natural resource is often poorly understood and consequently undervalued, mismanaged and even abused. According to the latest edition of the United Nations World Water Development Report published by UNESCO, the vast potential of groundwater, and the need to manage it sustainably, can no longer be overlooked. Read through this report to learn more.

An interoperative web-GIS that federates groundwater data to assist groundwater researchers and help water managers make the correct choices for the sustainable use of a precious resource.

The map allows you to find aquifer information for any location in Victoria. Just navigate to your desired location and click to generate a report. You will be given the option to generate a PDF or HTML version of the report.

A reservoir is a large natural or artificial water storage, often formed by building a dam across a river. Together, our 10 major reservoirs can store up to 1,812 billion litres of water, and vary in size from the smaller O’Shannassy (3 billion litres) to the massive Thomson (1,068 billion litres). There are also 38 smaller service reservoirs dotted around Melbourne, which store water for 1-2 days so there’s always some available to meet demand.

Click through this dashboard to see water storage right across Australia.

An aquifer is a body of rock and/or sediment that holds groundwater. Groundwater is the word used to describe precipitation that has infiltrated the soil beyond the surface and collected in empty spaces underground. Read through this article to learn more.

Use these tips to help you save water.

A firm in Abu Dhabi has floated plans to tow icebergs from Antarctica to the United Arab Emirates to solve the country’s fresh water shortage. An iceberg holding 20bn gallons of fresh water could meet the needs of a million people for five years, but first it would have to be hauled across 10,000km of open ocean to the coast of Fujairah, a feat that could take a year. Read through this article to learn more.