Renewed Demands for Mine Water Management

Abstract

The intensity and diversity of resource development projects has increased by orders of magnitude over the past two decades. At the same time, there has been an emphasis on environmental issues, decontamination of former industrial sites, a recognition of global warming issues, and a focus on the ability of project developers to initiate, operate, and close transient projects without compromising the land and water resource values that underpin existing and future land uses. This concurrence of issues is creating a massive demand for hydrogeologists and groundwater engineers throughout the world. Neither academic institutions nor their funding bodies have foreseen this demand. As a consequence, Australia is seeking to fill its demands by either temporary or permanent importation of skills but, since the same issues afflict other countries, or may come to do so in the near future, the Australian approach will probably be only marginally successful. Another issue confronting all countries active in groundwater management is that the range of skills now required for competent groundwater management around resource development projects have increased. These cannot be readily met by simply increasing the training load on new industry entrants. Rather, delegation of expertise will be necessary and management teams will need to include diverse professions in teams in order to cover the range of responsibilities that must be applied if sustainable decisions are to be made. The authors believe that there is an urgent need for groundwater managers to take up the learning opportunities and expand their skills by working even more internationally. This process should ensure cross fertilization of experience to the benefit of all the countries where groundwater issues are taken seriously.