Lakes Alexandrina and Albert and the Coorong need your help now. The situation is desperate but the the River, Lakes and Coorong can be saved.
Latest News
WET, the Water Election Team, releases the results of its Questionnaire to all Candidates in the March 20, 2010 SA election. See Water Election Team page
WET joined with Senator Nick Xenophon and Dr Anne Jensen to address Real Water Solution, March 14, 2010. See Updates and Events page
WET launched their questionnaire for all candidates in the upcoming SA election on February 25, 2010, on the steps of Parliament House. Follow the story on the Water Election Team page and the Updates and Events page on this site.
“Pray for rain”, our leaders said. We have now had two significant “rain events” across the northern Murray-Darling Basin (December 2009-January 2010 and March 2010). Historic rain. It has rained and rained but neither the federal government nor the state government has a coherent plan.
The outcome of the December 2009-January 2010 floods, 128 GL for Lakes Albert and Alexandrina, plus a further 20 GL from the Commonwealth was welcome but the process was less than satisfactory. See update 19 January, 2010. We await the outcome of the March floods.
The River, Lakes and Coorong Action Group Inc. wrote two Open Letters to the Hon. Julia Gillard, Acting Prime Minister, asking that she intervene in the national interest for the health of the River. Read more on Updates and Events, 12, 15, 16-18 January 2010.
The Action and Communication Sub-committee of the River, Lakes and Coorong Action Group Inc (RLCAG) invites you to learn more of the issues facing communities in the Lower Lakes and to participate in their campaign to save this unique environment.
Our message is simple: A healthy river = healthy communities and healthy economies
- We need water, not weirs.
- We need vision and courage.
- The problem is over-allocation.
- Stop blaming the drought.
Join us at the Fresh Water Embassy on the steps of Parliament House, Tuesday-Fridays, and learn more of our campaign. We’ll be there till the March 2010 election.
Join an event. Subscribe to our email list. Write letters. Call into Talkback Radio. Talk to your family, friends and co-workers.
- Tell them that the world is watching. The River, Lakes and Coorong are wetlands of international significance.
- Ask them to stand with us to ensure the future for our children and grandchildren.
- Tell them that more weirs will not secure Adelaide’s water supply.
- Ask them to be part of finding ways to live sustainably in the driest state of the driest continent.
- Tell them that for the cost of the temporary weirs, pumps dredges, regulators and bunds, the SA Government could implement water reforms and secure Adelaide’s water supply.
- Invite them to read more in Australia’s River.
We the People are on the move…
- In March 2009, the River, Lakes and Coorong Action Group Inc., the Lower Lakes and Coorong Infrastructure Committee, the Finniss Catchment Group Inc, SA Senator Nick Xenophon (Independent), SA Senator Sarah Hanson-Young (The Greens) and the Hon. David Winderlich, MLC (Democrats) took the message to Adelaide: Lakes Alexandrina and Albert and the Coorong are in a desperate state - but they can be saved. We have continued to build on that coalition.
- The RLCAG is part of a growing movement in Australia that is working to make water a key issue in upcoming state and federal elections. On October 10 2009, we joined with Water Action Coalition (WAC), launched on July 19, 2009, in a rally that brought 12 different groups to the steps of Parliament House.
- We have advocated working with nature and low intervention strategies. We have questioned the “science” on which decisions to manage acid sulfate soils with engineering intervention are based. On 12 June 2009, the SA Government announced a change in direction in their management of the threat of acid sulfate soils and Lake Albert: remediation would replace pumping.
- We have gained support of independent scientists: November 23, 2009 Independent Scientists Speak out. Engineering a crisis in a Ramsar wetland: the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth, Australia and August 5, 2009 Concerned Ecologists Speak Out
- On December 18, 2009, Peter Garrett, Federal Minister for the Environment (EPBC 2009/5227), notified the SA Government that for the “temporary” dam/regulator to stay in place beyond May 2011, an EIS (Environment Impact Statement) would be required.
Some Media Highlights
January 19, 2010 Lower Lakes to receive 148 GL from NSW floods
January 14, 2010 Flood waters to bypass Menindee Lakes (NSW) and deliver environmental flows to SA.
January 12, 2010 Open Letter to Acting Prime Minister, The Hon, Julia Gillard, Advertiser 13/1/10
November 6, 2009 No weir decision Anticipatory Media Release of River, Lakes and Coorong Action Group Inc.
July 27, 2009 Mud waves and the Pomanda Weirpr-rlcag-mud-waves-270709
July 24, 2009 The Embassy in Adelaide
July 20, 2009 The Embassy goes to Port Augusta
July 17, 2009 Meeting with the Minister who wasn’t there.
July 11, 2009 Wake for the Murray, Clayton Bay, See you there embassy-fish-lunch
June 28, 2009 10.30am, Clayton Bay. Be there.
Start hitting the media: Write a letter to the editor of your favourite newspaper.
Contact your local member: just go to Go to www.yourvoiceinhouse.org.au, enter your postcode or town and you will get postal addresses, phone numbers and email addresses (conveniently hyperlinked) of the politicians who represent - state and federal, in both houses of parliament. The “Your voice in the house” website via the Australian Centre for Democracy and Justice. http://democracyandjustice.org.au/
This website is a project of “Action and Communication Sub-committee” of the River, Lakes and Coorong Action Group Inc. Visit www.stoptheweir.com and http://www.riverlakescoorong.com.au/ to learn more of the RLCAG.
