Our quality of life is closely linked to the health of the Murray-Darling Basin. However, the future of the rivers that make up the Basin are under serious threat. So what are the problems, how can they affect us and what’s being done about it?
Australia’s life blood
The Murray-Darling Basin is the home of the largest river system in Australia. It is the lifeblood for eastern Australia, stretching 1,061,469 square kilometres through Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. The three main river systems that make up the Murray-Darling Basin include the Darling River, the Murrumbidgee River, the Lachlan River and Billabong Creek; and the Murray River itself.
As you can guess, the problems facing the river system directly affect hundreds of cities and towns, not to mention countless species of fauna and flora.
Indirectly, the Murray-Darling Basin affects all Australians, since we rely on it to support our environment and economy. For example, the basin provides about 41% of the country’s agriculture with water for crops like cotton, rice and wheat.
Also, many plant and animal species rely on the Murray-Darling Basin for survival. These include the River Redgum forests and about half of Australia’s native fish species. Native vegetation is currently being threatened by rising salinity (salt) levels; human-made changes to flooding and drying areas; and careless campers, boaters and land-developers.
The water crisis
As you are might be aware, the Murray-Darling Basin has reached record-low levels. The main reason for this is that Australia is experiencing its worst drought in possibly a thousand years. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, drought is part and parcel of life in Australia, simply because of its geographical location. Nevertheless, with climate change threatening to make matters worse, finding a solution to the water crisis is becoming more urgent.
Industrial and domestic use
The industrial and domestic needs for water have meant that regulation and control of the river’s natural flow has affected its wetlands fauna and flora. The use of locks and dams interrupts the geological course of the river, restricting water in some areas where it is urgently needed, while other areas receive more water than they normally would in a heavy rainfall season. This has affected the breeding cycles of animals and plants adding to a decrease in water quality.
The rise of salinity
The river system already has serious problems with salinity. Agriculture is mostly to blame for this—land clearing increases the amount of naturally occurring salt rising to the river’s surface and irrigation uses groundwater with high saline levels. It is estimated that salinity costs the users of the Murray River $47 million each year. This is due to lower productivity; loss of recreation; and the impacts on biodiversity caused by poor water quality and shrinking floodplains and wetlands.
Chemical pollution
Apart from pollution in the form of salt and clay particles, the water quality of the Murray-Darling Basin is threatened by sewage and storm-water pollution, and fertilizer and pesticide runoff. Pollution from irrigated dairy pastures has also produced faecal bacteria in the water. There has been a reduction in pollution over the last decade, however there are still concentrations of some chemicals.
Government in action
There have been quite a few summits involving state and federal governments on the issue of river management.
In 2004, the state and territory governments signed the National Water Initiative which aims to revolutionise the way water is used, re-used and managed in Australia. This initiative will involve expanded and permanent water-trading and other ways of minimising water wastage. There have been other deals lately too, including the Living Murray program; the Murray-Darling Basin Water Agreement; and increased funding to the Australian Water Fund. These programs basically involve water recovery and environmental work to try and restore the river and its ecological systems.
However, the size of human impact often exceeds the good done by these important programs. For example, the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council’s plan to recover 500 billion litres of water for the Murray River environment is only one-third of the amount needed to make significant improvements.
On 25 January 2007, the Howard government proposed a plan to centralise the management of the Murray-Darling. This would involve the Commonwealth government taking control of the system from the state governments, and investing $10 billion.
This plan has caused conflict because it requires the states to give up their constitutional water powers. After a second draft of the $10 billion proposal, Victorian Premier Steve Bracks, refused to sign because he believed it gave the federal government too much power including the control of water planning, water rights and water pricing. The Federal Water Minister, Malcolm Turnbull disagreed, saying the plan left the state government’s with a fair amount of responsibility. While the other states have agreed to cooperate there has been no final plan established.
Watch this space for further updates on the federal and state government’s negotiations over the water management of the Murray Darling Basin.
This page was updated by Chadorama
How Do I Know This?
Australian Conservation Foundation
http://www.acfonline.org.au
Murray-Darling Basin Initiative http://www.mdbc.gov.au/__data/page/1366/
December_drought_update06.pdf
River Murray region: supporting a healthy working river
http://www.csiro.au/csiro/content/standard/ps50.html
PM calls water summit on Cup day http://www.smh.com.au/news/scorchedearth
Australian State of the Environment Report 2006 – Investments in inland waters http://www.environment.gov.au/soe/2006/publications
Department of Water, Land and Biodiversity Conservation, Investment (Save the Murray), http://www.dwr.sa.gov.au/murray/save/index.html
Murray Care, http://www.murraycare.com.au
National Archives of Australia, Just add water: schemes and dreams for a sunburnt country, http://www.aa.gov.au/exhibitions/just_add_water/ja...
River Murray Catchment Water Board, Water quality, http://www.rivermurray.sa.gov.au/major/risk_assess...
Savethemurray.com, http://www.savethemurray.com
