Water Usage
For the Murray-Darling Basin as a whole most of the water use is dominated by irrigation. Irrigation in the basin accounts for 52.4 % of all water used in Australia, and 75.0% of all irrigation water is used in the MDB. (MDB Resources 1997).
Table 1 Water Use in the MDB, 1983-84 (source: AWRC 1987, Volume 2) | Water use | Quantity in GL | Quantitiy as a percentage of total | | Irrigation | Pasture | 4,120 | 47.6 | | Crop | 2,440 | 28.2 | | Horticulture | 1,090 | 12.6 | | Total | 7,650 | 88.3 | | Domestic and Industrial | Domestic | 225 | 2.6 | | Industrial | 55 | 0.6 | | Commercial | 47 | 0.5 | | Total | 327 | 3.8 | | Rural (domestic and livestock) | | 683 | 7.9 | | Total | | 8,660 | 100.0 | Other areas of water use are through domestic and industrial supplies this is because the Murray-Darling Basin accounts for most of inland Australia’s urban and economic activity. The basin also has by far the highest figures for ‘Rural ‘ water use this is domestic use on farms and for livestock. Content: sourced from Majestic Murray User Guide 2nd Edition 2001 <Back to River Regulation> |
