As wildfires surround New South Wales, 25,000 litres of water stolen from Australia town

As New South Wales, Australia, declares a state of emergency over extreme heat and uncontrolled bushfires, the country is also going through one of its worst droughts in its history. 

The drought means that water has become an extremely precious resource. So precious, that 25,000 litres of it — enough to fill about seven fire trucks — was recently stolen from the town Murwillumbah.

Last week, Troy Green, the general manager of the Tweed Shire Council, which oversees Murwillumbah, was alerted by a council ranger that a truck had turned up by a water hydrant at the community's airport with no number plates or identification.

Police investigated and said the individual was not a licensed water carter, meaning they were not allowed to extract water from a hydrant.

"We understand that they wanted to start a business carting water within the Shire," Green told As It Happens host Carol Off. 

"This operator was being, I guess a bit opportunistic and thought that he would get into the water-carting business. But unfortunately, he's done it very naively." 

Police say the thief bought a truck from across the border in Queensland and drove it back to New South Wales. He allegedly stole the water using a pipe stand he borrowed from a friend who was a licensed water carter. 

The perpetrator then sold the stolen water, police said.

Green says the Tweed Shire Council is currently investigating. The water carter who lent their pipe stand to commit the crime has since forfeited their license and can no longer operate, he said. 

The theft is concerning to Green, as the water crisis in his country continues to escalate by the day. He says he and his council acted quickly on the issue so there will be no more attempts to steal water from the community. 

"At the moment, there is a lot of people in the state of New South Wales who need water," he said. 

"We're in probably the worst drought that we've had here since the country started as we know it today ... and without the rain, the tanks have run dry." 

State of emergency 

New South Wales declared its second state of emergency in two months on Thursday as firefighters battle more than 100 fires — more than half of them uncontrolled.

On Tuesday, the continent experienced its hottest day on record at 41.9 C. 

"The firefront has been spreading very quickly and intensely," Shane Fitzsimmons, the New South Wales rual fire service commissioner, said after the state of emergency was announced. 

Two firefighters had been airlifted to hospital with burns to their faces and airways, he said. 

"It's still a very difficult and dangerous set of circumstances."

Hoping for rain this Christmas

While Green acknowledges the town of Murwillumbah is doing better than other parts of the state, he says his community is seeing the effects of the drought. 

He's says he's worried the situation will only get worse. The fires have already destroyed animal habitats and vegetation in the region, he said. 

"The reality of it is, you know, it's a dry continent," Green said. 

He's especially concerned about the town's dam, which holds 15,000 megalitres of water.

"The dam at the moment, because of the dry and the evaporation and the higher usage, it's dropping at around two per cent per week," he said. 

He estimates the town will be out of water by next September if it doesn't see rain soon. 

"We desperately would like to have rain for Christmas. But at the moment, the long-term forecast is not looking like there's rain until March to June next year."  

Written and produced by Samantha Lui.