A loud and colourful flotilla of powered boats, canoes and kayaks will make its way through Melbourne today to call for the State Government to return the 17 billion litres of water it promised the Yarra River more than two years ago. The Yarra Flow-tilla, complete with Brazilian drummers, will travel down the river from as far as Herring Island and gather near the boatsheds opposite Federation Square where participants will rally against the government’s broken promise.
A loud and colourful flotilla of powered boats, canoes and kayaks will make its way through Melbourne today to call for the State Government to return the 17 billion litres of water it promised the Yarra River more than two years ago.
The Yarra Flow-tilla, complete with Brazilian drummers, will travel down the river from as far as Herring Island and gather near the boatsheds opposite Federation Square where participants will rally against the government’s broken promise.
Environment Victoria’s Healthy Rivers Campaigner Leonie Duncan said recreational and tourism-related river users wanted to voice their anger at the government’s treatment of Melbourne’s most important waterway.
“The State Government made a proud commitment to deliver 17 billion litres of water to the Yarra in 2006 to boost the health of the Yarra and the life it supports,’’ Ms Duncan said.
“More than two years on the government is yet to deliver on its promise and has instead chosen to plunder the Yarra even further by ordering another 10 billion litres to be taken from its already dangerously low flows’’.
Ms Duncan said many people did not realise that the Yarra River provides up to 70 per cent of Melbourne’s drinking water supplies.
“While the people of Melbourne have worked hard to save water, so far they haven’t been rewarded with any environmental benefit in terms of reduced stress on the Yarra,’’ she said. “More and more water is now raided from the Yarra’s upper reaches for city use, reducing water levels in much of the river to a trickle’’.
Yarra Riverkeeper Ian Penrose said sacrificing the Yarra’s health was no way to manage the drought.
“The government argues that the river and consumers must share the burden of the drought, but the reality is that whilst per capita consumption is now 80 per cent of 1990s levels, the Yarra’s annual flow is only 22 per cent of its long term average level,’’ Mr Penrose said.
“Sustainability means ensuring that future generations have no less access to nature’s assets than current generations, so depleting the Yarra further is not a sustainable water strategy. The river can never be healthy until water extraction levels are reduced’’.
Yarra Tourism Association spokesperson Tim Bracher said the lower section of the Yarra River was now the “shopwindow” of tourism in Melbourne.
“The image that visitors take away of our river strongly informs their impressions of Melbourne,’’ Mr Bracher said. “We are robbing future generations of residents, visitors and recreational users of the delightful river environment that we have grown to love if we allow the State Government to choke it through withholding environmental flows.”