Despite Drought & Millions In Buybacks, Water Use "Unsustainably Out Of Control" For Murray-Darling

[hatrack]

WATER use continues to spin unsustainably out of control in the troubled Murray-Darling Basin, despite millions of taxpayer dollars being spent buying back water entitlements. The most comprehensive hydrological study of the entire basin shows just how much development has reduced vital flooding to important wetlands linked to the Lachlan and Macquarie catchments.

Things are set to worsen in the two major irrigation valleys due to climate change and increased pumping from aquifers that reduces surface flows, the reports, released this week by the CSIRO, show.

The Macquarie and Lachlan account for a quarter of groundwater extraction in the basin. Already unsustainable groundwater pumping in the Lachlan is set to increase by 86 per cent in the next 22 years, further degrading the Booligal Wetlands and Great Cumbung Swamp, the CSIRO said. So many are tapping aquifers that the water table in some parts of the Lachlan will fall 20 metres. In one area groundwater recharge only exceeds extraction 8 per cent of the time.

In an area of the Macquarie, groundwater extraction is nearly 11 times the rainfall recharge. Macquarie groundwater extraction is projected to increase 125 per cent by 2030.

EDIT

http://www.smh.com.au/news/water-issues/millions-down-drain-in-wetlands-battle/2008/04/11/1207856832401.html

[phantom power]

1. Hakuna Matatah, baby!

[NNadir]

2. The Murray Darling is just the tip of the melted glacier. Other major river systems that are

dying include the Sulaween, the Mekong, and most frightening of all, the Yangtze.

The last river is the life line of 600 million people.

The Danube is another dying river, and the Rio Grande has been dead for decades, likewise the lower Colorado.

[amandabeech]

3. Does anyone know if there has been an increase in the population

accompanying the development?

[Nihil]

4. The WHAT???

> Great Cumbung Swamp

:spray:

(Sorry ... I think it's the insanity of the majority of humans that is
driving me to unexpected hysteria at times!)