CANBERRA, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack on Saturday issued a call for Australians to take water security more seriously.
McCormack, the Nationals leader in the governing Liberal-National party (LNP) coalition, said the 100-million-Australian dollar (68.7-million-U.S. dollar) National Water Grid Authority (NWGA), one of the government's key election promises, will be established on Oct. 1 in a bid to drought-proof Australia "when the going gets tough again."
Much of Australia's eastern coast is currently enduring severe drought. Water authorities have warned that water storages across the eastern states have hit their lowest mark in decades in recent months.
"We know drought is a part of Australian life. This is about security," McCormack was quoted by The Sydney Morning Herald as saying.
He said it has been "too long" since an Australian government last built a dam, which was at Split Rock near Tamworth in 1987.
The NWGA will tackle water security on a national basis rather than the current state-by-state approach.
"The National Water Grid Authority will open up our huge national infrastructure funding effort to deliver real results. Our generation will be seen as the one which kicked in and delivered," McCormack said.
"Water is the lifeblood of our nation and we owe it to our regional producers and communities to deliver long-term, sustainable water infrastructure to help farmers recover and build resilience from drought."
