Lake Eyre Basin Report

South Australian Management of Water

Lake Eyre Basin

Introduction

The Lake Eyre Basin is a source of water located in a part of Queensland, South Australia, the Northern Territory and a bit of New South Wales it is 1.2 million square kilometres and it is almost as big as one sixth of Australia. The basin is one of the largest draining basins in the world. It is also home to about 60,000 people who live and work in the basin. The following information report will be explaining about the source water and how it is used, how the water is managed and if the following water source is sustainable.

Source Water and how it is used

The Lake Eyre basin is made up of many creeks and rivers as well as Lake Eyre but the four main rivers and creeks include the Diamantina River, Georgina River, Finke River and finally Cooper Creek. The Lake Eyre basin is managed by three states and territory(s), the Northern Territory, Queensland and South Australia, these three states signed an agreement called the: Lake Eyre Basin Intergovernmental Agreement, which allows the states and territories to a sustainable amount of water, this agreement was signed on the 21st of October 2000. Also the water is managed through pipes which lead to Adelaide and other cities in SA and other cities in different states.

One of the main pipelines to Adelaide is from lake Eyre, what happens is, the stormwater and extra creek and river water runs off to lake Eyre where a pipeline delivers it to Adelaide where it is de-contaminated and delivered to houses through more pipes where us citizens use and consume the clean, purified water. This source of water also connects cities in Queensland, as well as the Northern Territory so there would be pipes all over although in some places water would be received through rivers and creeks such as Todd River which would supply water to places nearby and as well as Alice