The world’s second-dryest continent is running out of surface
water Kevin Rudd's first year as Australia's Labor prime
minister proved a hit with voters. But in 2009 the road ahead
will not be so smooth. Mr Rudd spent 2008 calmly dismantling the
conservative social legacy of John Howard, his predecessor. He
apologised to aboriginal Australians for past injustices. He
pushed climate change to the forefront of public policy. He
closed Mr Howard's offshore “detention centres” for asylum-
seekers and abolished his workplace laws that had shifted power
to bosses. Symbolic changes are one thing. Mr Rudd will now be
dealing with a country whose implacable faith in both the
economy and nature to deliver abundance is starting to fray. On
both fronts, his government will face its biggest challenge over
Australia's water shortage. After 220 years of European
settlement, the world's second-dryest continent (after
Antarctica) is running out of surface water. The Murray river
and its main tributary, the Darling (known as th