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March 10, 1999
SUCKING OUR RIVERS DRY?
Australian rivers can be a great source of wealth and amenity to Australians. Our rural and urban communities depend on them.
Professor Peter Cullen, Director of the CRC for Freshwater Ecology believes we are taking too much water from the rivers, and this has led to serious degradation. The algal blooms seen so commonly in recent years and the loss of native fish are just two of the serious symptoms that show our water is not being used in a sustainable way.
"The cap on extracting water from the Murray-Darling Basin is at least one step that might stop the problem getting worse, but it is likely we will have to return more water to the rivers if we want to restore them" said Professor Cullen.
"Calls by some irrigators to "zap the cap" are just silly" said Professor Cullen. "Not only will the water be less useful as it is further degraded, but the irrigators living at the lower end of the rivers will only get their expected water in wet years - the security of supply, in some cases already poor, will be much worse".
"Scientific evidence strongly links environmental degradation to the amount of water currently diverted from the Basin's rivers. Taking more water from the rivers will only worsen the situation".
The Cooperative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology has just released a booklet Sustainable Rivers: the Cap and Environmental Flows that summarises the current knowledge of the ecology of Australia's inland rivers. The booklet explains how rivers work and describes why small floods, that connect the rivers with their life-giving floodplains, are essential.
Sustainable Rivers: the Cap and Environmental Flows shows that the Cap is supported by sound ecological knowledge.
Environmental flows add value to the Cap. The booklet describes the threats to the Basin's river systems and suggests how the rivers can be better managed to improve the river environment, to restore native plants and animals and to improve water quality.
Without healthy sustainable rivers, the long-term survival of the agriculture, towns and industries that rely upon the Basin's rivers is threatened.
Our best chance for creating a sustainable river system is to maintain the Cap, work toward reducing our current levels of diversions and seek ways of delivering water in a more environmentally friendly manner. Farmers and governments need to work together to reduce some of the transmission losses that commonly are between 30-50% of the water extracted from the rivers.
Media contacts:
Peter Cullen…CRC for Freshwater Ecology…02 6201 5168
John Whittington…CRC for Freshwater Ecology…02 6058 2329 |