There is currently no single measure of inland waters that takes into account the quantity of water, the quality of water and the health of Australia's inland water ecosystems. Furthermore, measuring inland water use is problematic due to fluctuating weather patterns and resulting inconsistent user demands. As such, there is no headline indicator for this dimension. Instead, this commentary presents a number of supplementary indicators which illustrate how much water Australians use.

Supplementary indicators show that:

• The total annual volume of water consumed in Australia has fluctuated over the decade, but decreased by 12% from 1994-95 (21,200 GL) to 2004-05 (18,800 GL).
• Since 2005-06, agricultural water use has fallen from 11,700GL to 7,300 GL in 2008-09.
• Australians are making more reuse of water in the 2000s than in the 1990s.

Water consumption

Agricultural water use

Reuse of water per person