The River has Spoken !
The Drum Tuesday February 12 - this episode was brilliant !
The river system is on life support .... large breeding Murray Cod are being individually removed from affected parts to be kept alive elsewhere.
Even the big years long droughts of the turn of the 20th Century (the Federation drought) and at the turn of the 21st Century (the Millennium drought) didn't have fish kills on this scale .....
The South Australian Royal Commission report hit the nail on the head but seems to be fading away to a whimper with all the impact of being slapped by a wet lettuce.
To put this in perspective, the Murray-Darling Basin covers an area the size of France and Germany combined, or 4 times the United Kingdom (for those of a Brexit bent
I have been waiting for some fair dinkum analysis and 'truth telling' and finally it has been broadcast on a recent episode of Australian TV ABC program "The Drum" of Tuesday 12th February 2019.
I cannot recommend highly enough that you spend 1/2 an hour watching this program (starts at the ~26:00min mark).
https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-13/the-drum-tuesday-february-12/10809248?pfmredir=sm
Featuring representation from the northern basin Aboriginal Nations group, as well as highly informed commentary from Professor John Williams of the Australian National University.
Takeaways are that:
* The political process has corrupted the MDBA plan and is only delivering less than half the required water to the environment (2750GL vs the 6900GL that scientists originally recommended)
* This is insufficient through drought periods
* The Water Act has not been implemented properly, and this improper implementation is not in accordance with First Nations Principles
* Apart from illegal take of water as exposed in the 'Four Corners Program - Pumped' , that the 'harvesting' of northern floodplain deltas is unregulated, unknown, and excessive
* Vegetation clearing, and damage to the soil sponge has a deleterious effect, and any climate change effects have not been accounted for
Three guys stand out to me as being absolutely bang on the money:
Professor Richard Kingsford
Professor Mike Young
Professor John Williams
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Williams_(water_scientist)
https://www.policyforum.net/authors/john-williams/
I also highly recommend reading last year's Murray Declaration:
https://murraydeclaration.org/
https://murraydeclaration.org/signatories
https://murraydeclaration.org/the-declaration
I can't fathom that we have so many accomplished absolutely leading world class scientists, and have wasted a significant part of the $13Billion spent, and are still in this huge bl**dy mess ....... :-C
It has GOT to be The Environment first and foremost, and everything else to follow from that subject to sustainable limits that don't impinge on environmental health in any way, no matter what the cyclical climate conditions are at any point in time, or a likely to be coming up.
Chosun :gh: