Last chance to save the Murray
After months of wrangling the Murray Darling Basin Plan is about to be presented to Parliament by Minister Burke. But it’s looking increasingly likely that $11 billion of taxpayers’ funds is going to be spent on a plan that just won’t deliver for the river. And after all, isn’t saving the river system why we began this whole process?
Here's why 2750 gigalitres is not good enough:
Doesn’t protect species in jeopardy
- In many places we’ll have flooding for too short a time for birds to breed
- Native fish still stuck, unable to migrate or breed
Doesn’t solve salinity
- Lower Lakes still have the potential to acidify, effectively becoming dead lakes
- Critical salinity thresholds in the Coorong will still be exceeded, wiping out local wildlife
- The Coorong hasn't fully recovered from the damage caused by the last drought
Wetlands lost
- We’ve already lost many wetlands, only a fraction of the red gum forests are still standing
- Floodplains left high and dry – not enough water to reach black box woodlands, disaster areas with many trees already dead
South Australia left for dead
- Lack of flows at the Murray mouth mean rising salinity in the Lower Lakes & oorong
- Dairy farmers are bailing out because water has become too salty to use
- Adelaide gets drinking water from the Murray in dry years – it’s becoming too salty to drink
Sign our letter to the PM and key politicians who will decide whether we spend $11 billion on a plan that gambles with the future of the Murray, or whether we improve the plan to safeguard the future of the Murray.
Comments
farmer water reform
During the drought many farmers learnt to use less water and to irrigate in more efficient ways. Why can't these techniques become mandatory and save the water there so our rivers run more freely? Also I can't see why a lot of these crops can't be drip fed instead of sprayed. Maybe I am to simplistic. Perhaps our farmers should concentrate on different plantings and grow more plants suited to semi arid regions
Post new comment