murray river life

Golf clubs voluntarily ripping up their fairways, new housing developments without gardens, and water police patrolling the streets.

This is Las Vegas 2008 - see Matthew Price’s BBC drought diary here and read more about what other countries are doing to conserve water.

Meanwhile a South Australian Government official says the government has no plans to harvest stormwater. That revelation came on Wednesday afternoon - shortly afterwards a media report stated that the CSIRO’s chief water scientist, Dr Bill Young, had said there was enough water in New South Wales Menindee Lakes to release some to environmental flows. According to Dr Young this would have a “definately postive” impact on the dying lower lakes.

However, premier Mike Rann has stated he would be one day dubbed the most negligent premier in the state if he released storagres from Menindee Lakes for the environment. The water is needed for “critical human needs”.

I continue to wonder, during all these discussions, debates and pleas, if the mouth is left to die won’t the problems slowly travel up the river? A new pipeline has been recently approved to pump water from the River at Tailem Bend to Lower Lakes irrigators - will this pipeline have to continue to be moved up the river?

The BBC’s Matthew Price is currently travelling along the Colorado River and reporting on its health and the views of the people who live near it. The first two diary entries can be found here.

The river has been in drought for eight years and, as mentioned in the report I posted yesterday, is hopelessly overallocated. It is only because the states are not using their full allocations that the river is still running to Mexico, just.

Nevada’s attempts to save water are admirable - the Southern Nevada Water Authority seems to realise that people living in a desert just cannot enjoy a lush green lawn etc. They even pass on the message with a bit of humour. It begs the question - why hasn’t the South Australian Government imposed stricter domestic watering restrictions?

The Nile, the Colorado River, the Ganges and the Yellow River – some of the largest rivers in the world are also the most susceptible to mismanagement and over allocation.

Irrigation is a historical practice - the Chinese have been irrigating since the third century BC and ancient Roman aqueducts that dot the European landscape are still used today.

However, rapid population growth and the need for greater food stocks at a global level has seen some of the world’s largest and most important river systems depleted to shadows of their former selves.

The Murray Darling Basin Commission announced yesterday that the drought is getting worse. MDBC chief executive Wendy Craik said the news was “disappointing” and that the likelihood of upper Murray inflow being above average for the remainder of winter and spring is very low.

Dr Craik said the water level in the lower lakes has been temporarily stablised but highlighted that low inflows over the next 12 months would be devastating for the area.

Lower Lakes - A snapshot

The above PDF was compiled by JMS for South Australian Murray Irrigators in February/March and distributed, via email, around the country.

It tells the story of those irrigators around the lower lakes that are struggling every day to keep their farms, and their hopes, alive.

A SAMI media release….

June 26, 2008

Producers urged to make informed decisions early

South Australian river communities are being left to fend for themselves and should make plans that do not rely on government intervention.

That is the message from the leader of the State’s peak irrigation body, the South Australian Murray Irrigators.

SAMI chairman Tim Whetstone delivered the message today as his members are about to enter the new irrigation season on Sunday with a two percent allocation.

“Are we any better off than those tribes that were found deep in the Amazonian jungle the other day. We’ve become the forgotten people of this State.

“We have devoted countless hours to meetings, workshops, seminars and travelling across the nation to talk to State and Federal politicians and it is our belief that Govenments are not going to be our saviour.

“Business people in our river communities need to acknowledge that and collect as much meaningful data as possible and act on it.

“Producers need to make plans early and save what water they can.”

Mr Whetstone said irrigators needed access to regular and independent information on the projections of water available within the Murray Darling Basin to make such decisions.

He hopes the State Government to honour a recent undertaking to establish a new website that will give irrigators direct access to consistently updated water projections for SA.

“This type of information is already provided to NSW irrigators, so we expect the same service,” he said.

“We don’t want a repeat of last year where we are hanging on Ministerial announcements about allocations. They almost always sparked a dramatic increase in water prices.”

Mr Whetstone said a lot irrigators had been forced to buy water last December when prices jumped to well over $1000 megalitre after the Government announced that irrigation allocations would not go above 16%. A few weeks later allocations had increased to 32% and water prices dropped.

Mr Whetstone said SAMI will continue to represent the communities it ultimately represents and provide innovative solutions to Government Ministers. Mr Whetstone will introduce guest speaker Wentworth Group member and Adelaide University water economist Professor Mike Young at the Riverland Rural Expo at the Renmark Hotel tomorrow.

There are reports this morning that Murray Valley encephalitis virus has been detected in birds in the Riverland.

Local ABC radio interviewed a spokesperson from the SA department of health this morning, and mentioned information on their website but the old DOH hasn’t made the information easy to find. I’ll keep looking but in the meantime here is the link to some federal government information on the virus.

Unfortunately, that info is all a bit clincial, so here is today’s report from the Advertiser as well.

I read a letter to the editor in the Weekend Australian Magazine last night (my life seems to be perpetually running about three days late) that I thought was relevant to this week’s local media coverage of Berri’s Big Orange.

For those not in the know about Berri life - the Murray River town is home to an 85 tonne orange that closed earlier this year due to lack of support. This week it was reported that the owner of the orange has been approached about selling the giant replica and it being removed from the area.

Here is the letter…

As someone who lives a stone’s throw from the proposed site of the Stonehenge replica in Margaret River (Susan Maushart, April 19-20), why wouldn’t I applaud WA brewer Ross Smith’s bold initiative of bringing this 2500-tonne attraction to our part of the world? Margaret River doesn’t even have any massive replica prawns, pineapples or apples. All we have is stunning beaches, forests, the Cape Naturaliste to Cape Leeuwin Track, more than 200 wine operations, terrific cafés and restaurants, and a fabulous mediterranean climate. Of course it’s vital we have a Stonehenge replica, too.
Ian Parmenter
Margaret River, WA