{"id":4428,"date":"2012-03-23T15:27:34","date_gmt":"2012-03-23T04:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/?p=4428"},"modified":"2012-03-28T21:28:18","modified_gmt":"2012-03-28T10:28:18","slug":"why-is-groundwater-so-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/ask-us\/why-is-groundwater-so-important\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is groundwater so important?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_4431\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 605px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4431\" title=\"windmill\" src=\"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/windmill.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"605\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/windmill.gif 605w, https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/windmill-300x185.gif 300w, https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/windmill-250x154.gif 250w, https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/windmill-119x74.gif 119w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 605px) 100vw, 605px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">In Australia groundwater accounts for over 30 per cent of the total water consumption. Image: Shutterstock<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Groundwater is one of our most important natural resources.<br \/>\n<\/strong><!--more-->Groundwater is a critical resource for much of Australia, especially in areas where evaporation rates exceed rainfall. But some people believe it is a free resource that will never run out.<\/p>\n<p>As surface supplies become more stressed due to evaporation, population growth, and industrial and domestic demands, groundwater becomes more important. Craig Simmons, Director of Australia&#8217;s National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training, recently said that droughts will be part of Australia&#8217;s future. Groundwater, therefore, needs to be husbanded so it is available if and when it is really needed.<\/p>\n<p>Groundwater currently accounts for 30 per cent of Australia&#8217;s total water consumption. However, it is often double allocated as both a surface and a ground resource in water management.\u00a0 Globally, it is affected by increasing extraction rates, which have more than doubled in the last 50 years.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ga.gov.au\/groundwater\/basics\/groundwater-use.html\">Geoscience Australia<\/a>, the country&#8217;s reliance on groundwater has increased in nearly 90 per cent in less than 15 years. Today we bottle and sell groundwater from natural springs throughout the country.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Groundwater is one of our most important natural resources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":4431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[132,133],"class_list":["post-4428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ask-us","tag-drought","tag-groundwater"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4428"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4428"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4635,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4428\/revisions\/4635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}