Australians warned crisis looms unless water usage dries up

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2004

SYDNEY (AFP) — Australians have been warned they face an environmental crisis unless they stop squandering scarce water resources in the world's most arid inhabited continent.

Australians have done little to curb water usage despite the worst drought in living memory, with households in the desert-dominated country still using water at a rate 30 percent higher than the OECD average.

The problem is most acute in large cities, such as Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, which account for well over two-thirds of Australia's 20 million population.

With reservoir levels below 50 percent in all of Australia's major cities except Brisbane, experts have warned something must be done.

Sydney, the nation's largest city, has near-record low dam levels as it...