Extra 100bn litres of water is heading our way...

AN EXTRA 100 billion litres of water - on top of the 400 billion announced during the election campaign - is now likely to flow into South Australia because of the Queensland floods.
It is understood government officers in NSW and Queensland have calculated there is more floodwater flowing across the border than originally anticipated and this will give SA a greater volume.

Extra water is already flowing down the river because of good rains in NSW and the NSW Government decision in January to release an extra 148 billion litres. Water levels at Lake Alexandrina have already risen 3cm.

According to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority's latest bulletin, this level is "forecast to continue gradually increasing over the coming weeks".

It states that during the past week, the average flow of water into SA is seven billion litres a day.
The water from the Queensland floods is starting to flow into the Menindee Lakes and once it has been stored it will be released slowly over the coming months. Government sources said it had to be released carefully over a long period. The flows will reduce the risk of acidification, lower salinity levels and improve habitat for wildlife.

A spokesman for Federal Water Minister Penny Wong said advice was that SA could expect "considerable water" but it was unclear how much and when. Meanwhile, Senator Wong and the state's newly promoted Water Security Minister, Paul Caica, have met officially for the first time to discuss water issues.

The issue of water from the Queensland floods provoked a row in the recent election when the Opposition claimed Premier Mike Rann had taken credit for getting 400 billion litres of water that SA was already due to receive.

However, Mr Rann said without the support of NSW Premier Kristina Keneally and Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, SA's share of the floodwater could have been held up.

Greg Kelton, State editor

What are the potential effects of global warming in terms of climate change and how can they be arrested?

Nowadays, global warming becomes a hot issue to be discussed on. From day to day, it becomes worse and this caused our mother of nature, Earth has suffered a lot especially in term of climate change. Global warming can be explained in term of increasing of the Earth’s temperature that could change our planet by making the climate much more unpredictable, extinction of many species and making people’s life more difficult. Global warming is caused by a phenomenon known as the greenhouse effect. The natural greenhouse effect is a good thing as it helps to warm out earth. However, as the industrial revolution become more important, more carbon dioxide gas is emitted to the atmosphere as a by product of the combustion of petrol in this industrial. The carbon dioxide gas makes Earth’s greenhouse gas become thicker from day to day. Hence, more of the Sun’s heat gets trapped inside the atmosphere and our planet become warmer. This causes the global warming to occur. The global warming gives various impacts to the climate change and also to the human being. Thus, the best solution should be discovered in a way to arrest these problems from become worst.


Global warming has various impacts to our environment. The most obvious one is the changes in the temperature which lead to coastal erosion; lengthen the growing season, and melting of ice sheets and glaciers. Global warming result in more hot days and fewer cool days for certain places. The drought will happen frequently in a long time and the probability for hurricanes to occur also high as oceans getting warmer (Holli Riebeek,2007). In addition, the sea level also rises and hence leads to erode coasts and cause coastal flooding. The rising of the sea level happen due to the warming of the earth which warm up the oceans too. Hence, the sea water molecules expand and take up more volume causing the level of sea rises. The increase in temperature also make the melting of glaciers and ice sheets happen faster which can speed up the rises of sea level. The rising of the sea level will cause the low-lying country to disappear underwater. For instance, Bangladesh has a higher probability to disappear as it is one of the low-lying countries (NASA,2009).


The effect of global warming not only can be seen in term of increasing in temperature but also to the ecosystem including plants, animals and human itself. In many parts of the earth, the four seasons have already changed. Spring occur earlier than usual. The migrating animals have to move in order to survive. The species those are unable to move will facing extinction. The risk of for plague to destroy an ecosystem also increases as the shorter and milder winters fail to kill in insects. For the people of the residents of poor countries, they will suffer a lot as they don’t have enough resources to survive (Holli Riebeek,2007). According to some prediction, the climate change could make about 200 million of people become homeless in 2100 because of flooding and other phenomenon likes hurricanes (NASA,2009).


In order to overcome this problem from getting worse, the right steps should be taken. As a consumer, we can try to use energy as efficiently as we can. To do so, we can use the efficient electrical appliances and also use renewable technology. These steps are believable to reduce the producing of carbon dioxide below 1970 emission (Al-Gore,2007).


Global warming has various potential effects such as increasing in temperature and rising in the sea level. It also gives an effect to the variety of living things. In order to prevent this effects from become more worsen, the right steps should be taken. The main solution is by reducing the emission of carbon dioxide gas by using energy efficiently. Our planet will continue to warm and things getting worse if the right steps to reduce the global warming are not be taken. As a conclusion, all party should lend a hand and give a full commitment in order to save our mother of nature.