Almost everyone agrees the Rivery Murray is terminally sick, and urgently needs a mega-dose of fresh water to flush out millions of tonnes of plant-killing salt from the Lower Lakes and Coorong.
But any agreement on a River rescue plan seems more remote than ever with the release of the latest Murray Darling Basin Authority report.
It's only hardened the will of farmers, irrigators, conservationists and scientists to resist this latest attempt at compromise and face-saving by the bureaucrats and politicians in Canberra.
Authority chariman and former politician, Craig Knowles, admits the draft basin plan "'is not about returning the rivers to their natural state... it's about finding the balance between the environment, economies and communities."
He's urging stakeholders to 'pull together' and change to the 'new way' of managing Australia's largest river system.
Trouble is, almost nobody believes this latest plan can work.
Despite being the most efficient irrigators in the country, Riverland farmers are expected to give back more water to the river, as much as 180 billion litres worth more than $300 million.
Our farmers know that their counterparts in Victoria are still using open irrigation channels which leak, and waste millions of litres through evaporation.
No wonder Premier Jay Weatherill is calling foul and has asked Crown Law solicitors to work up a case for a High Court challenge.
But the most disturbing report has come from University of Adelaide Associate Professor David Paton, who is highly regarded as an authority on the health of the Coorong.
Dr Paton says that even after the recent good flows of freshwater to the Murray mouth, conditions for plant and animal life in the Coorong have got worse.
He calls it 'ecocide' with numbers of waterbirds crashing to historically low levels, and aquatic plant life, which sustains both bird and fish life, disappearing from the Coorong's southern lagoon.
"Everyone has assumed that with the return of freshwater to the region a year ago, the ecology of the system would quickly recover - nothing could be further from the truth."
"The system deteriorated even further," Dr Paton said.
And as the arguments and bickering grinds on there is just one statistic worth remembering.
Two million tonnes of salt arrive at the Lower Lakes and Coorong every year, so can there be any doubt that Australia's once mighty river system is slowly dying from the bottom up?
18 Comments
well it is impossible to return the river to a balanced state.. Unless you stop a lot of farming techniques in their tracks now.. The Ord irrigation system is going to be another problem to... The 3000 year old style of "Flood irrigation" is killing off millions of Ha right now across the nation. They say it is a cheap way of watering but it costs mother earth dearly and eventually kills the land and rivers. Ask Egypt..
ReplyGreedy Farmers just don`t get IT if the river die so do their farms they are more concern with making money than with the health of the river all the rivers belong to all Australians not just to a selfish greedy few !!
1 Replysave the river murray if you can't, then stop collecting the levy
2 Replieslet all the farmers go broke then sell to china , then release the water and our rat politicians can live a rich life
ReplyGee this must be Gillards fault
Replywhy the hell don't they all pull together and just use hydoponics these days. they will have to spend a bit to make a lot.and it taste a lot better.
1 ReplyI have a couple of issues with your blog. 1) From where did you get the statistic that "almost everyone" agrees that the river Murray is terminally sick"? And what about the people that don't agree - they may be correct. 2) If the river is "terminally sick" as you claim, then nothing can save it.
ReplySo the river neds to be flushed with fresh water.....what was all that water that came down from Queensland? If this communist government removed the barrages, it would have been flushed, but I suppose money is more important to them.
2 Repliesyour first line is completely incorrect and thus the article is based on a fallacy. Very few think the Murray is 'terminally' sick - just ask anyone who lives on or near it and is familar with the natural cycles of the river. And what about the billions upon billions of cibic metres being washed down from the floods in NSW/QLD and VIC. Is this not enough to restore the huge flood plains at the mouth of the murray that is currentyl teeming with bird and plant life???
3 RepliesHow about some population control. We would not have these enviromental issues if we had of controlled the issue before. we have 7 million people too many here now.
1 Reply