 Mara Naan. Yeah, you and Kate Balladou were Reggie Yinna. Hi, my name is Kate and I'm a Reggie woman. I'd like to acknowledge that I am currently standing on a country that was never seeded. It's Nunawal-Nambri and Naragoe country and these people were fabulous water managers. Hopefully these two lectures will help us all become better water managers. This first little lecture is about freshwater availability and the next one will be about freshwater quality and they kind of go together because the two are not separate. There might be a suggestion in the framing of the curricula there is a distinction between the natural processes and human activities but that's actually not a reasonable distinction to make. Human activities do not exist in isolation from environmental processes and can often change the pace of those processes and generate far from ideal outcomes. Like I said in this lecture we're going to look at freshwater availability. Now in terms of its existence freshwater is actually very scarce. Most of the planet shore is covered in more water than land. Approximately 70% of the earth's surface is water. There are only about two to three percent of the surface water is fresh. So that means that most of the water on this planet is actually saline which means it's salty and many land-based plants and animals can't use salty water for long periods of time without getting sick or even dying. There's also water underground which we simply call groundwater and that's found mostly in pockets of rocks and these pockets are called aquifers and in some places this groundwater in aquifers is quite easily accessible. It may affect the most accessible water in the area where you live but human practices are also known to make this water quite salty. It's also naturally in some places quite salty. So I'm not going to actually discuss groundwater. I just want you to know that exists. It's an important source of water for millions of people around the world even in Australia and it also too can be both freshwater or saline water. So like I said most of the fresh water on the earth's surface which is really just two to three percent of the water is actually ice at the poles or glaciers and it comes in snow or permafrost and just think of permafrost as permanent frost on the earth's surface in very cold places which leads us to an estimation of only about 0.4 percent of all water on the surface of the planet being fresh water. That's 0.4 percent that's available for plants and animals for them all to survive and thrive and this 0.4 percent is not evenly distributed across the globe. I think of this as geographical reality as water distribution rather than water allocation because even in dry places human presence is still able to exist because it's just enough water. But before you get excited and think that there is one good thing about human driven that is anthropogenic climate change is all the fresh water that's going to be released from melting ice caps and glaciers. Just think about where that melted ice and snow will run off to. It runs off to the salty oceans and so that means that climate change will actually reduce the volume of fresh water on the planet as the fresh water will be overwhelmed by the volume of saline water. That's becoming salty too and this is an example of human activities where we release greenhouse gases through our consumption choices behaviors and patterns that affect natural processes with far from ideal outcomes. So 0.4 percent of all surface fresh water is not a lot of water. It has been relatively consistent volume of water for many hundreds of thousands of years and it has mostly kept all living and non-living things on the planet going. So when people talk about water scarcity it's not so much that there is less fresh water available. It's simply that there is more people wanting to use more water for more activities. The term water scarcity is about human needs and behaviors. The water hasn't the amount of water on this planet hasn't changed in the last 50, 100 or 1000 years. It's about us, what we've chosen to do and how much more we want to do with water. It's really just that simple. With more people wanting to use more water for more activities whenever they want it means that many people don't have enough fresh water available for their very basic needs regardless of water distribution. Many people cannot fulfill basic needs such as drinking or cooking, washing their bodies or cleaning their clothes or their homes and not having enough water makes people sick and sick people sicker. So did you know that human decisions and activities in one place can directly affect the water availability to people in other places? A very common example is all the women and children across the globe who walk long distances to get maybe 10 litres of poor quality water while mine sites and large cities in the very same region can get all the water they require. Is it fair that some people can turn on one of many taps inside the house and get as much drinking quality water be it hot or cold water which we call potable supply as they want? This inequality is found in rich countries too such as Australia not just poor countries like Asia or Africa. How is availability ensured for those with limited water supply or that stands? Interbasant transfers, water tanks and kiosks they're the ones you'll commonly see to ensure availability and in some ways this is a good thing because these practices can smooth out the lumps and bumps that come in water distribution but they also come with problems. So dams for example even small ones can drown habitats big ones can drown cities. Interbasant transfers where we take water from one catchment another word for basin to another catchment can cause environmental processes particularly in that first catchment to alter. Water kerosks which mean lots of people don't have to walk so far for water can provide water at a very expensive rate much more expensive than would come through a park service and if you live in a slum you often still have to walk to get to that kiosk. It is probably clear to you by now that water availability is usually only considered from the human perspective like when I raised the term water scarcity and this is particularly true of those who make decisions about what water will be used for and how it will be used and who gets to use it and that's what we're really talking about when we use the term water availability but we know that humans don't live in this planet on their own for example many of you probably have a pet that you love dearly I have two dogs or you might enjoy watching the butterflies through the grass or you enjoy climbing trees your pet those butterflies the grass the trees more they all need water too. I think the failure of most people particularly those responsible for managing water availability to not consider the water needs of the non-humans of the planet is selfish and unethical the way most people regard water water availability now is not how they have typically regarded water availability for example many indigenous peoples around the world believe and act that water is not only a living being but something to be shared between us and all that is more than human in Australia for example many indigenous nations ensure that there is enough water all through the very different practices that you are familiar with for example indigenous people in Australia do not impede flowing waters with dams or weirs because creek streams and rivers the sources of fresh water are living beings with their own rights obligations and responsibilities to permanently anchor structures to their bed is not only to inhibit the expression of their status as a living entity but to reduce water availability to humans downstream and the more than human who are also living downstream. I hope this mini lecture helps you understand the difference between water distribution and water availability and start you thinking about how water availability can more equitably provide water for humans and more than humans without the level of impact on the environmental processes on which we all rely that is currently happening.