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Hi Peter
Yeah, I appreciate the reasons why. And I guess that if I were an irrigator
on the Murray, or depended on the Murray for my drinking water I'd be all
in favour of using as much Snowy water as possible. The point I hoped I
was making was that it is a shame (in the full sense of the word)
that we have exceeded the capacity of the largest freshwater system in
the country to the extent that we are now dependent on water input from
other catchments. Such is the reality we face and I can appreciate that
immediately restoring full flows to the Snowy is not in the overall best
interest of the country.
For those interested in solutions to this disastrous state of affairs,
a publication just released and well worth reading is 'A Revolution in
Land Use: Emerging Land Use Systems for Managing Dryland Salinity' by Stirzaker,
Lefroy, Keating & Williams (CSIRO Land and Water). The main argument
advanced in this publication is that we need a complete change from annual
plant-cropping dominated land use to one dominated by perennial plants.
This does not mean cessation of agriculture but adoption of new agricultural
systems (as well as protection and enhancement of native vegetation). Let's
hope the message is getting through. By the way, this publication notes
that the connection between native vegetation loss and increasing salinity
in the Basin was being recognised as long ago as 1897. Slow learners, aren't
we?
Richard (or so I claim!)
Peter Waanders wrote:
The reasoning behind the argument
that restoring (part of) the Snowy's flow would deteriorate the Murray-Darling
Basin is as follows:A proportion of River Murray water is diverted from
the Snowy, increasing the quantity of water in the River Murray's water
as well as the quality.It is widely feared in SA that if the Snowy would
be allowed to (partly) flow again, the quantity of water entering the Murray
would decrease with detrimental impacts on floodplains (already crying
out for a decent flood) and water quality (already extremely turbid).I
understand that the current Snowy's proposal includes no changes to the
amount of water to enter the Murray, which would alleviate those concerns.
+----------------------------------------+
Richard Johnson
Roma District
Tel: (07) 4622 4266 Fax: (07) 46 22 4151
E-mail:
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