Snowy River

[(Richard Johnson)]

Hello all

This is just me letting off steam about a conservation/resource issue that is not directly related to (though very important to) birds, so delete now if you're not interested.

I heard a story on ABC Radio this morning about the on-going argument about re-allocating flow to the Snowy River to restore it's health. Note well that the Snowy was diverted to ultimately flow into the Murray. Under this regime, the Snowy is said to be dying. Anyway, someone was commenting that increasing flows in the Snowy (i.e. its original course) to levels above 15% of original flow would have serious implications for electricity generation, irrigation and the health of the Murray-Darling system.

What a telling comment! Accepting that figure at face value, it appears that the health of the largest river system in Australia now depends on diversion of at least 85% of the flow of a river that never was a part of the catchment. A sad reflection of the abuse to which we've subjected the Murray, isn't it?

Richard

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Richard Johnson
Roma District
Tel: (07) 4622 4266  Fax: (07) 46 22 4151
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