Our 'breadbasket' Is In Big Trouble

Sydney Morning Herald

Tuesday June 4, 1996

By JAMES WOODFORD Environment Writer

The economic importance of the Murray-Darling Basin and its precarious health makes the waterway, which drains four States, one of Australia's most important environmental issues, according to a report released yesterday.

The report, Australians and the Environment, prepared by the Bureau of Statistics, says the rivers have major ecological problems, including algal outbreaks and alarmingly high rates of salinisation - they carry 1.1 million tonnes of salt into South Australia each year.

They are also subjected to massive water extractions - three-quarters of the nation's extractions are taken from the Murray-Darling.

Australia has 245 river basins but the eastern Murray-Darling system is the only large waterway to the sea, draining about a seventh of the continent's land mass.

"The Murray and Darling rivers are among the longest in the world, extending for 2,500 and 2,740 kilometres respectively," the report says.

"The Murray-Darling catchment is called the breadbasket and heartland of Australia. It accounts for between 30 and 40 per cent of the nation's production from resource-based industries.

"Half Australia's sheep and crop, one-quarter of the dairy and beef cattle and three-quarters of the irrigated field crops are in the more than 1 million square kilometres of the basin."

Australians have water in reservoirs equivalent to three Olympic-sized swimming pools per person - "the highest per capita water storage of any country ... the natural flows of rivers and streams have been altered, habitats destroyed and new, less-productive ones created."

A spokeswoman for the Australian Cotton Foundation, which represents the largest irrigation-based industry, said last night that cotton growers did not believe they were taking too much water from rivers.

"To date, there has never been any indication of a salinity problem as a result of cotton farming," the spokeswoman said. And cotton farmers did not use phosphates, the main cause of blue-green algal outbreaks.

The NSW Irrigators' Council and the Australian Cotton Foundation, which are preparing an audit of their industry, are awaiting the results of several government studies.

"If studies show that the cotton industry has an impact, then the industry will act accordingly," the spokeswoman said.

© 1996 Sydney Morning Herald

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