Authorities fear “time is running out” to keep the taps flowing in a city home to hundreds of British expats and descendants from the UK.
Port Lincoln, Australia, is famous for its seafood, fishing and shark spotting tours but now residents are facing the prospect of running out of fresh water in just two years.
ABC News reports more than 15,000 people could be affected after the over-extraction of ground water resources has put the city's supply in danger of running dry.
And authorities fear the wider region, known as the Eyre Peninsula, could also be affected with almost 28,000 residents facing a shortage.
SA Water Minister Nick Champion told ABC's 7.30 program the situation was “dire” and the government was proposing to build a £160 million desalination plant – which converts seawater into freshwater to fix the problem.
He said: “We're running out of time, and we need to act.
“The aquifers are running salty. We've exhausted our capacity to utilize Mother Nature for a water resource. We've just got to get on and look at the solution to it.”
Aquifers are natural geological sources of fresh water underground which can be tapped by a bore hole to extract H20 for supplying homes and businesses.
Eyre Peninsula Seafoods CEO Mark Andrews said he was worried a proposed desalination plant, a facility used to convert sea water into drinking water, could put the marine environment at risk.
He said: “Sealife gets sucked into the intake into the desalination plant and then therefore, it is not out there for me to catch.”
He added: “Let's call it a vacuum cleaner and that vacuum cleaner is taking in the water through the desalination plant and my spat (young oysters) goes with it.”
Liberal MP Nicola Centofanti said regional government and water authorities should have acted sooner to fix the problem.
She added: “I think there's a real frustration in the community and we're hearing through this committee that SA water and successive governments have sat on their hands for the best part of 15 years on this issue.
“We do have a situation here where we are running out of time, the peninsula does need a desalination plant but we've got a site that's been chosen by the government that doesn't have community support.”