The Murray River - Decision And Actions Are Needed

To help solve the big problems in our world, people need to cooperate. We need to ignore our tribal borders and work jointly. The global financial crisis is one example, global warming is another and, in this article, I discuss what is happening to Australia’s iconic Murray Darling River system which is one of the great rivers of the world.

During the holidays, I spent a few days at Goolwa relaxing, reading, sleeping and catching up with people over a few drinks. For those who don’t live in South Australia, it is a busy holiday and boating town at the mouth of the dying River Murray and the anger of the local people is huge. There are humorous signs up like “Land For Sale” signs on exposed river bed and in the centre of Goolwa a very large sign on the riverbed reads “Rudd the Dud equals Mud”. For non- Australians, Prime Minister Rudd came to power at least in part on “vote for me for wall to wall Labour so the States and Feds can cooperate on issues like the Murray.” The State of Victoria has different ideas unfortunately.

The communities at the bottom of the river are not angry at lack of rain but at bureaucratic delays and lack of both decision making and information release. The river is unbelievably low on the upriver side of the barrages that are supposedly in place to keep the river water fresh. There are huge islands and beaches and the jetties and bridges clearly show the normal water level. I did not see all the birds I am used to in the formerly magnificent Ramsar listed wetlands. People were playing cricket on the riverbed and land sailing since water sailing is out for all but shallow boats and one narrow channel. Should they have regattas like the one at Alice Springs on the dry riverbed was a question asked?

The other thing that the bridge and jetty pylons show are massive growth of tube worms – a MARINE worm because the water is nearly as salty as the sea (19ppm when seawater is around 24-26ppm). The salt is coming in below the barrages. There is a lot of talk about a temporary barrage just upstream from Goolwa so they can let the sea in to the lower lakes area which does not sound as bad as it did when the water was fresh. It is almost as saline as the sea now. Local businesses are slowly dying, tourist businesses are in trouble and most people can’t use their boats any more. Trailer boats can be used on the other side of the barrages where the estuary is tidal and the mouth is kept open by constant dredging.

Several suggested schemes have been around for many months but there is a lack of information and decision. People want to know what is going to be done. There is obviously also anger at Victoria not cooperating with an Australia-wide approach to managing the Murray Darling until 2011. I kept hearing the view that the Feds were voted in, at least in part, because they were going to unify all the States on this issue. People wonder if some of the other states are really all Australians. Meantime our local Water Resources Minister was quoted in the paper saying “it will rain again sometime”. Anger is directed at both levels of Government. All this came from sensible people I was meeting and socialising with. People who have never been extreme or "greenies" or protestors. They are mostly business people or professionals. But they are angry.

I wrote about this in my blog and an interesting comment from a reader in the eastern states recently about the lower lakes being “just a freshwater evaporation basin”. He went on to say that “In a national contribution context…sorry but the 95%+ of the rain to fill your evaporation pond falls in the other states and is used to provide food for the nation.” How very tribal.

Large amounts of Federal money (Billions of Dollars) has been given to NSW and Victoria to modernise their irrigation systems and, while the rice growers in NSW are returning the saved water to the river, the Vics are keeping 80% of the water and increasing allocations.

I have been following this up. There seem to be three issues here.

People living and working at the Murray mouth recognise that even though the lakes have been fresh for 5,000 years they will inevitably go salt as sea level rises with global warning.
A big issue is to have fresh water for towns along the river and to have some water in the river between Blanchetown and Goolwa because banks are collapsing, and businesses are going bankrupt.
The other is the huge shallow freshwater artificial evaporation basin on the lower Darling River called the Menindie lakes. This is very shallow and has a higher evaporation rate than the lower lakes. Part of the official purposes was to “provide a recreational amenity”. This was DUG and holds three times as much water as Sydney Harbour. Why is this evaporating in the middle of nowhere when it could be released into the river?

Interesting! I would have thought that the Murray below Lock 1 actually has a greater historic and ecological claim to this water that NSW is holding. Let’s hope that some of the Queensland floodwaters actually make it to the Murray. Some is coming south to Lake Eyre. Lake Eyre full of water is just wonderful. I took my kids up after the 1973 floods in Queensland when the lake was full. But it is a totally isolated salt lake.

Using the water we have more wisely, sharing the costs and benefits, and investing in future generations is vital but we also need an entitlement to environmental flow in the rivers. We have a single country and the Murray belongs to all of us. I think we need variable water allocations for different years. In drought years, there may need to be no annual crops like cotton and rice and only enough to keep perennial fruit crops alive, not cropping. Then increase the allocations when the water is there.
How sad. Decisions and action are needed. The environment is being damaged and lives and businesses are being damaged. People are being tribal in their claims to “their” water and using it beyond their means.

Is there something we can learn here about our own businesses in times of stress and crisis? The crisis of the Murray has crept up gradually and people kept hoping it would go away. The current financial crisis also crept up gradually because people lived beyond their means.

Our overuse of energy is another thing that has crept up slowly and people hope it isn’t real and will go away. But we do need to get real and start reducing our carbon emissions and other environmental wastage. The real issue here is that we are all living beyond our environmental means, prices go on going up and governments will force us into emission trading which will affect us all. And once again we are behaving tribally. The place for our tribal behaviour is the football field, NOT in the face of global problems and politics.

Allocations, Artificial Lakes, Climate Change, Darling River, Freshwater, Global Financial Crisis, Global Warming, Irrigators, Lower Lakes, Menindie Lakes, Murray Darling River.

Author: Jean Cannon, www.enviroaction.com.au