News

Melbourne, Monash in $2m water crisis move

[ The University of Melbourne Voice Vol. 1, No. 2  2 - 16 April 2007 ]

By Christina Buckridge

‘Food bowl’ focus for strategic uni research.

The University of Melbourne and Monash University have joined forces in Uniwater, a major research-driven response to the current water crisis.

The two leading Australian universities have each put in more than $1 million over three years to spearhead a unique collaboration creating a powerful critical mass of expertise in water-related research.

The collaboration is the first initiative under the revitalised Melbourne Monash Protocol which was set up in 1997.

Uniwater was launched recently by Victorian Minister for Water John Thwaites with support from the University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellor Professor Glyn Davis and Monash University Vice-Chancellor Professor Richard Larkins.

Minister Thwaites said the collaboration “will further develop our ability to provide sustainable water supplies into the future by increasing our knowledge and understanding of water issues”.

Director of Uniwater, Professor John Langford, agrees that research holds many of the answers to the water crisis. “We cannot begin to solve water management problems until we do that research,” he said.

Professor Langford previously headed the University of Melbourne’s Melbourne Water Research Centre.

Uniwater’s independent board is chaired by Professor John Lovering, a distinguished geologist and former President of the Murray Darling Basin Commission and Chairman of the Victorian Environment Conservation Council.

Uniwater has four strategic objectives –

Maximising environmental return on investment in repair of rivers, groundwater and catchments;

Realising the potential of irrigated and dryland agriculture using less water;

Providing a reliable and sustainable water supply to Australia’s growing cities; and

Developing water policies and institutions within a Federation framework.

Uniwater’s research will focus on Melbourne and the Goulburn Valley, Victoria’s food bowl and part of the Goulburn–Murray river system.

Professor Davis said Uniwater will assemble the foremost thinking to “help drive important new conversations we must have as a community to help us understand the complexities of the water issue”.

In putting their joint capabilities together, Professor Larkins said, the universities will be able to ensure critical gaps in water-related research are more easily identified and filled to achieve the best community outcomes.