Water

The issue of climate change impacts on local domestic water supplies has not yet been addressed by many climate campaigners. But as climate change impacts on water availability, it will increasingly also affect water quality.

For the past decade Friends of the Earth (FoE) has researched and campaigned against the use of toxic pesticides. The major focus of this work has been impacts of pesticides in drinking water, food and waterways. In 2012 Friends of the Earth produced the publication 'The Dose Makes The Poison?', which highlights the most commonly detected pesticides on food consumed in Australia. This publication has received thousands of downloads.

Friends of the Earth. Media release. 22 November 2012.

Friends of the Earth Melbourne has condemned the final Murray Darling Basin Plan, announced by Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke today, as a sell-out plan that defies the best available science and imposes unacceptable risks on future generations.

Friends of the Earth spokesperson Will Mooney said "Mr Burke has only committed to 2,750 GL to the Murray Basin river system".

The Deep Sea Mining campaign launches new report that blows Nautilus out of the water

PRESS RELEASE OCTOBER 15, 2012

Environmental organisation Friends of the Earth today released a report about drinking water quality issues in South Australia. The report was compiled from a 9000 page Freedom of Information request from SA Water which covered water quality results between January 2000 and July 2012.

Friends of the Earth media release. Thursday 20 September 2012

Twice as much water as Cubbie Station’s giant 460 gigalitre (GL) water entitlement is effectively sent overseas every year in the form of irrigated cotton from the Murray-Darling, according to new research released today by Friends of the Earth.

The analysis compiled Australian government data on annual cotton exports and irrigation water use from 2005 to 2011 and calculates the volume of water embodied in Australia’s export cotton crop.

Gender-bending chemicals have been detected in the off take of Melbourne's Sugarloaf Reservoir.  The herbicides Atrazine and Simazine, used in the production of food crops in the Yarra Valley, have recently been detected in Yarra River source water at levels in breach of European Water protection standards and also at levels that have been know to induce hermaphrodisation in frogs. Sugarloaf Reservoir provides drinking water to almost 40% of Melbourne's population [almost 7% of Australia's population].

Friends of the Earth / Australian Conservation Foundation