While we have been busy using the state's water to drink, grow, produce and recreate for well over a hundred and fifty years, we are still learning about how to best manage it as a precious renewable resource.
As with any renewable resource, the key to successful exploitation relies on understanding how it can be found, captured, used and most importantly, replenished.
The Department of Water is the State's water expert. It manages the State's total water resources, which are annually around 50,000GLs of renewable freshwater, of which less than a quarter is considered potentially available for human use.
How does over abstraction of groundwater affect its quality? How do we improve run-off into dams when we get less rainfall? How do we stop water becoming salty, polluted and unusable?
These are just some of the questions the department is charged with providing the best answers for – answers that make a difference as to how the state's development will continue now into the future.
By understanding our water resources better, the department can help maintain and even improve the yield of freshwater to support the future.