Světový den životního prostředí: Austrálie se potýká s úbytkem vody

5.6.2005
SYDNEY [WWF]
Autor: Jacqueline McArthur, tel: +612 928 155 15

Australian cities won't be sustainable in the long term if they continue to waste water at current levels, says WWF-Australia on World Environment Day, whose theme this year is focused on "green cities".

“Water shortages in Australian cities are evidence that our urban centres are on borrowed time,” said Dr Ray Nias, WWF-Australia's Director for Conservation.

Australian city dwellers use the world’s highest quality drinking water to flush toilets and grow lawns. More than 30 per cent of a typical urban household’s water quota is put on the garden while 20 per cent goes down the drain.

New water restrictions and dams at record-low levels show exactly how the country's cities are now running on empty.

“On World Environment Day city-dwellers are being urged to do everything they can to look after the rivers, aquifers, and wetlands that sustain them," Nias added.

“There are two ways people can help – use less water and make sure their governments don’t cut environmental flows in these rivers."

In a desperate bid to service Sydney’s water needs, flows in the Hawkesbury Nepean River will now be cut by a further 50 per cent ­– a disaster for the river’s already stressed ecosystem.

“It’s a precedent that other thirsty cities may follow," said Nias. “For the cities in the world’s driest habitable continent to waste so much water and then cut the life-giving flows to rivers by half is a disaster.”

Australia is currenllty experiencing one of its worst drought in 60 years. The drought affects the eastern coastal states of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, as well as South Australia and the southern island of Tasmania. Many parts of Australia have not a single drop of rain in April, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.


NOTES:

• World Environment Day, commemorated each year on 5 June, is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action. The World Environment Day theme selected for 2005 is "Green Cities" and the slogan is "Plan for the Planet!"

DISKUSE - KOMENTÁŘE: