Life in drought

In Australia, the driest inhabited continent, saving water increasingly means spending watts. The Australian government has responded to its water woes with a raft of big projects. Its 10-year, $12.9 billion (US $11.8 billion) "Water for the Future" plan, whose aim is to "prepare Australia for a future with less water," includes $5.8 billion to modernize irrigation infrastructure. The program should save millions of megaliters of water but will burn many more megawatts, too. That's because water-saving techniques like drip irrigation and pressurized pipelines carry a stiff energy penalty.