Study finds NT aquifer showing signs of stress due to dry conditions

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Cambrian limestone aquifer is one of the most important in the Northern Territory. It stretches from Katherine in the north, past Tennant Creek in the south, feeding the iconic Mataranka hot springs and Roper River. It's now showing signs of stress linked to ground water depletion.

Transcript

00:00For the Aboriginal communities along the Roper, much of life revolves around the river.

00:07For people in Jilmingen, I would say the water is our life.

00:13The Mungerai people have been sounding the alarm about a system they say is changing.

00:18Most of our fishing spot, like our go-to fishing spot, has been dropping really low.

00:26Nowadays you can see the bank.

00:28Now, a study from Griffith University is validating their claims.

00:33We started to see that the recovery of the system from dry season conditions became slower and slower.

00:40Using satellite data that tracks changes in gravity across the Earth's surface,

00:44the team found evidence of groundwater depletion over the last decade.

00:49We might be actually, through that water extraction that's happening in the aquifer,

00:53sort of lessening the resilience of the aquifer and all its connected surface water systems

00:58to those drought periods in the future, making it more vulnerable.

01:02In the years since 1980, the most severe and widespread droughts have been in the mid-2000s.

01:11And yet satellite images show surface water across the area growing from 2003 to 2011,

01:17as strong wet seasons recharge the system.

01:20Then, in the more recent period from 2011 to 2022, surface water has been shrinking.

01:27In the last ten years, some of the surface water did not just shrink, some were actually permanently lost.

01:35The study stands in stark contrast with the rosy picture painted by the NT government's water science.

01:41The Department of Lands Planning and Environment told the ABC

01:44any suggestion of a link between reduced groundwater storage and extraction licences was false,

01:50and that groundwater storage remains strong.

01:53Maybe they can stop taking more water out of the country,

01:58and maybe actually come and see what they are damaging and destroying.

02:03A major new water licence for a cotton, melon and mango operation in the fields around Larimer

02:08was granted in recent months.

02:10No, this is at where the virus is from.

02:11The standard traffic is a transformer for few weeks.

02:12So it's a new water, which I don't want to stop the market in recent months.

02:13And the percussion's and mechanical system, I hope that the stream in the field

02:14is completely unwinded at the moment.

02:15And the thing about the sailing problem is, I don't want to stop the seas into the weather

02:16and all that happens in recent months.

02:17And the wind is that they are waterproof but they areAir and the air.

02:19The thing about the water, the wind is of the water, which is some of the air,

02:20and the air, and in the air that I do not力 is far enough.

02:21It's also a bit more uneasy because it's not pubic.

02:22A little bit of this plantains

02:33and adds a lot of the water that he has got that into space.

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