The vital importance of water to Australia’s wealth will be debated when political, business and industry leaders meet with academics at a national forum at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga on Friday 14 March 2003.

The Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson, businessman Richard Pratt and the Governor General Dr Peter Hollingworth head the list of speakers at the Wealth from Water Conference in Joyes Hall on CSU's Wagga Wagga Campus between 9.15am to 4.15pm (see the Conference Program).

The conference is the first time a national forum on water will focus on: the vital role water plays in the economic and social wellbeing of Australia and the potentially devastating consequences of dwindling water supplies and water quality, especially for regional and rural centres (see more in a recent news release).

Senior representatives of Woolworths, the CSIRO and Wesfarmers Landmark will also air their views at the forum, which is a joint project between CSU and Wagga Wagga Chamber of Commerce.

The day will end when ABC journalist Maxine McKew poses to an eminent panel the question, “What happens if you turn off the water?” 

While the possibility of a dry tap may seem remote, the Wealth from Water conference is being held as a United Nations report recently found that by the middle of this century, seven billion people in 60 countries could be water-scare.