As agriculturalists we understand and appreciate all too well how water is the essence of life – critical for sustainable development, healthy ecosystems, and human survival.
Friday 22 March 2024 was World Water Day, an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to protect and conserve our planet’s water resources. Australia has the rare privilege of an abundance of natural resources, and despite our climate challenges, that also includes fresh water for all.
Yet here we are facing a threat to that.
AgForce is leading a campaign that should never have been required to protect the Great Artesian Basin, an underground water resource that lies beneath around 30 per cent of Australia’s land mass.
A water resource relied upon by hundreds of communities and ecosystems across inland Australia, but one that mining giant Glencore is most of the way through an approvals process that would allow it to pump with industrial waste.
If anyone is not familiar with the campaign, or the criticality of stopping this current proposal by Glencore, please follow this link for more information and how you can assist – agforceqld.org.au/knowledgebase/article/AGF-01960/.
Be in no doubt that should this Glencore project be allowed to proceed; Australia’s long held food security and regional viability will be put at risk.
UNICEF data shows that around 2.2 billion people live without access to safe water.
We have a Global Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 6) that aims to ensure everyone around the globe has access to safe, affordable drinking water by 2030.
We celebrate World Water Day every year to highlight the importance of freshwater and advocate for sustainable management of freshwater resources.
Among other things SDG 6 advocates for is the protection and restoration of water related ecosystems, improved water quality and access to safe drinking water for all.
Australia is fortunate to have an abundance of natural resources, including water, a privilege a lot of the world does not enjoy in the same way we do. We cannot afford to put that at risk.
As we celebrate World Water Day, AgForce will leave `no stone unturned’ in seeking to quash Glencore’s proposal and to also change policy – particularly at the federal level – to ensure the Great Artesian Basin is never again jeopardised by an offshore mining giant.
