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Politics : The Environmentalist Thread
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To: Wharf Rat who wrote (10307)3/11/2007 9:58:46 AM
From: Wharf Rat  Read Replies (1) of 36917
 
Devastated system dying of thirst
James Woodford, Sydney Morning Herald
THE Darling River's flow has been halved by evaporation, government reservoirs, hillside dams on farms and huge private irrigation storages. The river is being devastated by over-extraction, a report for the Murray-Darling Basin Commission has found.

Enough water to fill Sydney Harbour four times over - about 2 million megalitres - is evaporating from storage dams along the river each year. This is a quarter of the river's annual average flow and has contributed to the astonishingly rapid demise of a number of internationally recognised wetlands. The water reaching three of the Darling system's most important wetlands has fallen dramatically - by more than half into Narran Lakes and nearly a quarter into the Macquarie and Gwydir marshes.

The report also found:
¦ Within 25 years climate change is predicted to reduce average flows in the Darling by as much as a fifth.
¦ There has been a large reduction in the frequency and size of floods in all rivers in the Darling system.
¦ In spite of a cap on extractions from the Murray Darling system, NSW and Queensland are still looking to expand water use in the basin.
¦ Pumping of groundwater is leading to a loss of surface flow in the river of 74,000 megalitres each year, and this will rise to 191,000 megalitres as extraction increases.
¦ The passage of fish is being hindered dramatically by weirs. ..

Mark Etheridge, a grazier from Wilcannia and member of the Australian Floodplain Association, said more water was being allocated from the river than existed. "It's almost as if someone has forgotten to hit the equals button on the calculator."

William Riley, an Aboriginal elder in Broken Hill and member of the Darling River Action Group, was appalled by the overuse. Inland rivers were being destroyed. "They're all in trouble because of the cotton growers."
(7 Mar 2007)

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