The depth of the drought affecting the bush can be seen by the increase in water theft. Many places in the bush depend entirely on rainwater capturing it on roofs and storing it in tanks, or collecting it in dams to use for stock etc.
With so little rainfall in recent months… years even… dams and tanks are drying and water is becoming an even more precious commodity.
Like all commodities, as the price rises… so does the opportunity for crooks to profit from other peoples misery. And so local residents are waking to find their dams and tanks have been siphoned dry and the water sold who knows where.
Added to the problem has been that as their profit margins decrease farmers are having to take on off-farm employment so regularly leave their properties unattended.
The distances between homes and dams etc over here are so great that the police are virtually helpless to catch these crooks so along with the water cattle and sheep are being stolen. No idea what the answer is… but it takes a low sort of person to prey on people already in distress and make their lifes even more miserable.
The Eclectic Interweb 