Australia in grip of water crisis

Changing weather patterns are already playing havoc with major parts of the world. In Australia, the worst drought in living memory is coming close to a critical level in major Australian cities. Professor Peter Cullen, leader of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, has said that, "Some of our major (cities) are really in a race at the moment to see who's going to run out of water first."

Australians will have to change they way they live and find new ways to collect and resuse water.

Green gardens and dishwashers could soon become luxuries beyond the reach of most households.

The recycling of water, desalinisation plants and the harnessing of storm water - which often, and rather frustratingly for many Australians, simply flows into the sea - are options.

Left unsaid, is that water shortages will also put limits on the amount of population growth the land will support. After a dramatic drop in rainfall in the mid 1970s and another in the mid 1990s, drought may become the norm in Australia's future.