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The study, published in the journal Nature this week, examined how periods of drier and warmer weather driven by climate change will impact agriculture and ecosystems, including water supply.
Australia’s southern states are projected to endure more prolonged day-zero drought events with less time between each one, limiting their ability to recover.
It could face this situation as early as the 2020s or 2030s.
The scientists used a large number of climate models to assess the timing and likelihood of day-zero droughts.
Christian Franzke, a climate scientist at Pusan National University in South Korea and an author of the report, said they are “unprecedented water scarcity events, events which haven’t occurred so far”.
“It’s when you turn on your water tap and no water comes out,” he said.
South Australia has already had a taste of what may come in the years ahead following the severe drought earlier this year.
Parts of South Australia, south-west Victoria and north-west Tasmania had their driest start to the year on record.
It left farmers pleading for emergency supplies of hay, or selling stock to stay in business, while some isolated communities depended on water being trucked in as reservoirs ran dry.
Franzke said the study’s findings point to the clear need to speed up the clean energy transition, he said, as well as improve water management — huge amounts are wasted through leaky pipes, for example.