I. Current Water Supply Infrastructure Under Pressure

Abstract: Water shortage can be caused by population growth that drives the growth of water demand for domestic, agricultural and industrial purposes. Water shortage in water-rich areas can be also caused by water pollution. The water problem caused by poor quality and insufficient quantity has been widely noted and well informed among the researchers, decision makers and ordinary people, but not much research considers these facts: 1) more and more people migrate to coastal areas; 2) sedimentation by soil erosion reduces the storage capacity of existing reservoirs and many of them will be out of use in the next 50 years; 3) for developed countries like Australia, it is almost impossible to build new inland dams to replace the lost storage. Thus, a major issue is to find new sources of drinking water for the future. This paper describes the potential benefit of expanding the use of coastal reservoirs for human consumption. First, we review current issues associated with water supply; then, we identify key differences between inland and coastal reservoirs before highlighting advantages of coastal resrvoirs in the future