At this stage, the Authority don’t yet seem to be reckoning what the costs of NOT taking action to restore some flows to the Murray-Darling system will be.
We’re hearing so much about what the supposed costs will be of giving a bit of water back to the environment.
But what if we don’t!?! The MDBA process is an opportunity to turn things around. We can’t afford to muck it up.
We saw some of you last night in Bendigo at our Water for River Red Gum Parks forum.
What a privilege to hear from such inspiring speakers. Professor Henry Atkinson’s calls for cultural flows were a sobering reminder of how far we have to go, and just how important rivers – as nature intended them – are for country and for humans.
At the meeting we passed this resolution:
But there remains unfinished business: these floodplain ecosystems are in crisis and need a secure allocation of environmental water to survive.
For too long, too much water has been taken out of Victoria’s northern rivers, which means that when the parks were declared, they were parched and dying for a drink.
This year, nature stepped in, and the parks and their wetlands have benefited from Spring rains. But this reprieve has come about through an act of nature, not good governance.
Proper management of these new parks is essential to secure their status as an asset for the environment and for all Victorians. Without an adequate environmental water supply, the values for which these parks were declared are at risk.
This meeting calls on the next state government to secure an adequate and legally-entitled allocation of environmental water for the River Red Gum parks, guaranteed for delivery from 2012.
So, all in all, it’s pretty clear what we’re expecting the next state government to do for our River Red Gum Parks, isn’t it?
Photo credit: James Thomas