Introduction

(center>by Jimmy Taylor

The Murray and the Darling Rivers are the main rivers in the Murray-Darling Basin. This basin covers more than one-million square kilometers. Flowing south from the Culgoa and Barwon Rivers, is the Darling. The main source of this river is the Barwon, even though the Culgoa is the longer of the two. When the Murray-Darling River system is measured, it is half the length of the Nile River at 3370 kilometers. The Murray-Darling is Australia’s largest river system. It ranks fifteenth in length and twenty-first in area in the world.

Water Storage

Within the last seventy years, the Murray-Darling Basin has had 146 dams and/or storage systems built to store run-off and rain water. Over fifteen million megaliters are used annually. Once that fifteen million megaliters is used, not very much water is left over. Most of the water used is used for irrigation, a mulitude of locks, weirs, dams, bores, and channels. All of these large scale extractions cause problems for the basin, which will be discussed in the next paragraph. Although water storage is a good thing in some eyes, scientist David Harris says the Murray-Darling Basin is being damaged by extraction. "It’s not an unlimited water resource we’re dealing with here. We’ve hit the wall in terms of water use…", says Harris. What he is saying is Australians are using mare water than that is being stored up, especially around the Murray-Darling area.

Problems

"The problems are many and varied. We’ve seen riverbanks collapsing, we’ve seen wetlands too dry for much of the year and some wetlands too wet because the river is running too high at the wrong time of the year.", says Harris of the New South Wales Department of Land and Water Conservation. Believed to be the most shocking problem would be the bloom of blue-green algae in 1990 and 1991. The outbreak signaled that the health of the basin is under a great threat. Because of too many dams, weirs, and locks, the river system is in grave danger of collapsing. If it did collapse, the environment and the economic aspects would suffer a great loss. Not long after the bloom occurred, it disappeared. Many people re-thought about their water usage that they had earlier taken for granted. Scientists and most farmers took time to determine who, what, and where the water was needed, how much people paid for the water, and how much water would be allowed to be taken from the systems. The people and the government came up with a joint effort, which they called ‘Restoring the River Murray’. This commitment will be discussed in the following section.

Another major problem in the basin is a result of changing land use and agricultural irrigation. "The clearing of forests and inappropriate irrigation are causing high water tables, promoting salinization of soils.", says Dr. Blackmore of the Murray-Basin Commission. The salinization of the soil and the erosion of the soil causes a huge decline of crop production because the soil cannot support any plant growth. Without plant growth in some areas, the estimated loss is over $220 million per year.

Restoration

The commonwealth and the State Governments of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland are now working together to improve the management of the Murray-Darling Basin as a whole. This project is called ‘Restoring the River Murray’. The community and local governments are what the project is most dependent upon. Out of the four governments, the South Australian Government alone contributes $13 million per year. Despite the progress toward the restoration process, the South Australian Government realized that ground is still being lost. The efforts are not even stabilizing some of the existing problems. The restoration was meant to decrease the salinity on and around the basin and nearby water-ways. Now findings actually show an increase in salt concentrations and salt loads over the past twenty-five years. In order to focus and hopefully revise the restoration plans, the South Australian branch held a three-day seminar on the Murray River. They decided to work toward two main goals: 1.) a reduction of salinity and, 2.) water quality improvement. Several other projects are arising and showing dramatic results. The branch of South Australia’s seminar came just in the knick of time to save the Murray-Darling Basin.

Conclusion

With help from the surrounding communities and state and local governments, the continent of Australia is hoping that its largest river system and economical contributor will not collapse but take a turn for the better and go back to the way it was before it was harmed by careless individuals.