In southern Australia, where rainfall has been declining for the last 30 years, there have been a few tantalizing seasons with lots of rain, even flooding, and hope that the dry spell was over.

"People breathed a sigh of relief and we all forgot about water," Joe Flynn, CEO of the Water Industry Alliance in Adelaide, Australia, told GlobalAtlanta. "But what was going on underneath was a very long-term, marked decline that is not always apparent."

Mr. Flynn, who is in the United States for water-related meetings and conferences, believes it is is important for Georgians not to be lured into a false sense of security because of the heavy rains of 2009.

"You need to recognize the long-term trends," said Mr. Flynn. 

In Atlanta, rainfall amounts have been dropping in recent years, said Georgia’s climatologist, David Stooksbury. From 1979-1993, rainfall at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport averaged 50.6 inches per year. From 1994-2008, the average was 46.69 inches, said Dr. Stooksbury.

Then, in 2009, the floodgates opened as Atlanta received 69.43 inches of rain. 

A year with so much rain can make it tempting to lose focus on water conservation, said Mr. Flynn.

"What takes a lot of effort is to just maintain the efficiency, the good practices you learned during the drought," he said.

Efficient use of water is good for business regardless of whether drought persists, said Mr. Flynn, whose organization is comprised of companies that specialize in water-saving products and services which they export worldwide.

"We realized that the less water we use and more precise we got at it, we actually reduced operating costs and improved our productivity," said Mr. Flynn. "Irrigators use less fertilizer. We use less electricity for pumping. We realized how often we were actually drowning the root zones of our plants. There was a lot of business benefit from being water smart."

Dr. Stooksbury agrees that Atlantans should not be distracted by one rainy year.

"We've had bad droughts before and we will have bad droughts again," said Dr. Stooksbury. "We need to continue our conservation efforts. It is important not to let our guard down."

Southern Australia, in a normal year, receives about nine inches of rain, said Mr. Flynn. The Australian government is spending $15 billion to build desalination plants that will make seawater fit to drink.

Desalination, which has been mentioned as a possible solution for Atlanta's water problems, comes with its own set of challenges, Mr. Flynn said.

Desalination can easily double or triple water costs, he said. Also, Australia is making sure that the plants are powered by renewable energy such as wind and solar, so that they do not contribute to climate change, he said. 

It is also important to make sure the waste water from desalination is released back into the ocean without harming  aquatic life, he said. The waste water is highly concentrated with salt and must be sprayed over a broad area, not simply piped back into the ocean at a single point, he said.

"The world has not traditionally done this," said Mr. Flynn. "There has been a lot of destruction in the Caribbean and Middle East, destroying fish habitat, destroying sea life."

With safeguards in place and renewable energy as its power source, desalination is working for Australia, said Mr. Flynn.

"The risks can absolutely be managed," he said. "The upside is that it's a climate-independent water source."

For more on the Water Industry Alliance, click here .

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