Murray/Darling Basin Plan (corrected version)

[Bellingen Environment Centre]

Dear BEC Supporter, 

SAVE THE MURRAY DARLING BASIN

The Guide to the Proposed Basin Plan has been released by the Murray Darling Authority and is now open for community and stakeholder feedback. This plan was initiated by the Howard Government and there was broad consensus on the implementation. This cooperation has now fallen by the way-side due to the opportunistic tactics by the leader of the opposition, Mr. Abbott. Thus, it is important that we counter some of the negative information issued by the Federal Opposition. Feedback received before 30 November 2010 can be considered in the drafting of the proposed Basin Plan. 

ABOUT THE BASIN

• Diverse and rich natural environments - contains one world heritage site + 30,000 wetlands
• Provides critical habitat for 95 Basin state and Commonwealth-listed threatened inundation-dependent fauna species
• Provides 39% of national agricultural production + critical water supplies of more than three million people
• Critical cultural asset to the many Aboriginal nations who live in the Basin
• Under enormous stress - overdeveloped + water overallocation
• 20 out of 23 catchments in the Basin are in ‘poor’ to ‘very poor’ ecosystem health
• Increasing water quality problems + more frequent outbreaks of blue-green algae blooms
• Water consumption per annum has increased from about 2,000 GL/y in 1920 to 11,000 GL/y in the 1990s
• Severe and prolonged drought + compounded by natural climate variability and climate change
• No significant flows through the Murray Mouth since 2002

Click here to SAVE THE BASIN 

This will only take 2 minutes!

If you don't have time to read the full guide, please use our submission proforma below.  

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Dear Members of the Murray Darling Authority, 

I believe that the focus of the Murray Darling Basin Plan needs to be on the water required for the restoration and protection of the environment. You, as the Authority, have determined that "the amount of additional surface water needed for the environment is between 3,000 GL/y and 7,600 GL/y", and yet, you "ha[ve] made a judgement to only examine scenarios for increasing the amount of water available for the environment to between 3,000 GL/y and 4,000 GL/y", despite stating that, "providing water at the higher end of the range would on the whole deliver better environmental outcomes".

Please alter your recommendation for additional surface water needed for the environment to be between 3,000 GL/y and 7,600 GL/y.

The current level of surface water being diverted from the Basin and resultant high level production and economic activity is unsustainable. I understand that the impacts of providing additional surface water of the above quantities for the environment will be felt by more severely by agro-industries with "high water usage but lower or more volatile value products such as broadacre cereals, rice and cotton". While regrettable, I believe that this impact is unavoidable if we are to make the necessary societal transition towards more sustainable diets and clothing choices. We need to modify our lifestyles to suit our environment, not alter and impair our environment, as has been done with the Murray Darling thus far, to suit our lifestyles. 

Yours Sincerely,

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Click here to SAVE THE BASIN 

This will only take 2 minutes!

For Gaia,

Leif Nielsen Lemke & Amy Boyd
Environmental Campaigners, Bellingen Environment Centre

4/1 Church Street Lane, Bellingen NSW 2454
Ph. 02 66 558 770
thor...@westnet.com.au