Already the driest continent, Australia’s water crisis is coming to a head. The Australian climate is erratic, and long droughts alternating with periods of higher rainfall make the development of coherent water regulation regimes difficult. With recent news of more water rationing in the southern Murray-Darling basin after a warning that drinking water could not be guaranteed beyond next year if the drought persists, it is clear that action needs to be taken. Very rapidly over the next decade, Australia will become one of the most important markets in the world for water scarcity solutions, and an opportunity for overseas investors.
Water Market Australia will help you to understand how the market works at a state and local level, where the greatest needs are, and how to make it work for you. It maps out the sector, explains the systems and outlines the opportunities. It also profiles local companies so that you can identify potential partners and competitors and lists all the major water projects so that you can easily identify opportunities.
Water Market Australia will be published in September 2008 in CD-ROM format and will include detailed market presentations, Excel data sets of market research and forecast information for the main growth sectors in the Australian Water Market.
The report covers the industrial water market, looking at the opportunities in industry and in the mining sector, providing an overview of Government incentives for industries seeking to rationalise their water use through recycling and reuse. Of course, the Australian water market is in large part driven by the rural sector. The importance of this cannot be overlooked, as it is in this sector that the millennium drought has had most impact. This report considers in detail the impact of the drought on the rural water industry including a section on water trading. There is also a section discussing water efficiency programs and sourcing water from aquifers.
The future of the Australian Water Market lies in current government water reforms, where expenditure will be linked to projects that tie in with the National Water Initiatives, and with the rationalisation that will come out of infrastructure reforms and improvements. For instance, improvements in the Murray Darling Basin will be the result of improved water trading, accompanied by more rational use of water so that crop and feed demands don’t clash. The report includes vital forecast information about how the rural market is going to evolve and forecasting of local government municipal reforms.