There is huge potential to reduce water demand from agriculture by adopting “regenerative agriculture” techniques and focusing on improving soil quality and fixing the broken water cycle. I don’t think agriculture should be offered any more water than it already has, this will just delay farmers from taking the action they need to to address the issues. The plan should be that they won’t get any more (even that they should get less) and to work within a limit that reduces. Water is not a carbon free commodity unless it falls from the sky. As soon as you start abstracting and pumping and irrigating there is a lot of energy used to deliver it to a crop. This simply can’t be the case by 2050. Water companies have a vested interest in selling more water and we should push back against this. Reduce, reduce, reduce. Charging more for water is fine. Make businesses and people pay the real cost of water covering the environmental damage that is done by lowering water tables and damming valleys. Focus on sorting out the water cycle. Moving water from one part of the country to another is 20th Century thinking. It encourages more damage in the west (more reservoirs, abstraction, piplines) and more damage in the east (more development, unsustainable cropping). Rainwater harvesting is a sound idea but it won’t happen if people/businesses don’t pay the real cost of water. It will remain more expensive. The idea is right…gather water locally and use it locally.
Let’s discuss.