Hurry Save The Murray!

Confused about the numbers.

7 November: Friends of the Earth and the Inland Rivers Network have released their Guide to the Murray-Darling Basin: How much water does the Murray-Darling Basin need, and where?

The document provides a visually engaging snapshot of what is at stake for the environment in the upcoming Draft Murray Darling Basin Plan, due to be released on the 28th of November.

It includes photos, maps and contact details for scientists, local residents, naturalists, graziers, conservationists and traditional owners who are available to speak to the media about environmental water needs in their district.

The briefing paper details the water needs of 25 significant environmental sites from the Coorong to the Murrumbidgee.

For further information contact:
Jonathan LaNauze, FoE - 0402 904 251
Carmel Flint, FoE - 0400 521 474
Emma Hollows, IRN - 0421 572 547

According to the communique of the Ministerial Council, 4 November 2011,  the Draft Plan for the Murray-Darling Basin will be released by the MDB Authority on Monday 28 November 2011 and a 20 week consultation period will begin.

Christmas is coming and so is a Draft Plan for the Murray-Darling Basin. The MDBA is going to engage us. Here is am engaging script.

We need to consult about this. We need to ask about that. But we don’t get asked, we get told and then you change your minds. When we ask about specifics we get silence, delays, poor information.

Let’s call it a journey? Have to start somewhere. But why start here? Where is the science for this starting point? We started a long time ago. The Water Act requires we change direction.

How about we start small and review it in a couple of years? That is high risk for the River and therefore for our communities and economies. These reforms have a 10 billion budget. Are we getting value for money?

We can learn as we go along. We will adaptively manage the system. How will this be resourced? Who are the adaptive managers? The same people who have mismanaged us to the brink of disaster?

The locals need to be involved. Call it localism. What? How will this be resourced? You have not respected local knowledge in the past. The localism we see is parochialism and imposition of the will of powerful lobbies on all others.

There are serious constraints to running the River with more than 2800GL? Name them please? Use the infrastructure money to ameliorate the problems? How hard can it be?

Do they have a Draft Plan?

We do. It is simple. It is based on peer-reviewed science. It is consistent with the Water Act. Locals with deep ties to the regions support it. It comes to you free. Watch this space.