Melbourne to Run Out of Water By 2010?

I can’t think of a major city in the world that faces the possibility of running out of water like Melbourne is by as early as 2010 according to this posting if you can believe it:

There has not been one week in 2009 where Melbourne’s Water Storage levels have increased or even stayed the same. It has been on a continual decline due to lower than average rainfall, higher than average water usage per person, and an ever increasing Melbourne population…

Should this amount continue to decline at this rate? Well possibly. Melbourne’s water usage over winter should decline, however we are still having the greatest population increase of any city in Australia…

Although I don’t like to extrapolate, if the current decreasing trend of water levels were to continue in the graph as shown above, then by November 30, when (No Water Minister) Tim Holding will re-review the storage levels, Melbourne’s water levels will be at 13.3%, less than half of what they are now. And I can extrapolate further too. If the current decreasing trend of water levels were to continue beyond this, then Melbourne will have its last drop on the 16th of June 2010.

What continues to amaze me is that people continue to be surprised by this happening despite the fact that the city has been Australia’s fastest growing city and had a huge population boom without improving the water infrastructure. 

What is sad is that this should have been addressed long ago.