Saturday, May 16, 2009
Australia's Dry Run : Murray-Darling Basin
What will happen when the climate starts to change and the rivers dry up and a whole way of life comes to an end? The people of the Murray-Darling Basin are finding out right now.
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I live on Hindmarsh Island near the Murray Mouth. From my home I hear the dredges that are keeping the river mouth open - they are going day and night. There is a 90 mile inland waterway which supposedly has international protection. It has become hypersaline - the South part is 7 times more saline now than the sea and has become a dead sea - everything in it has died. The migratory bird numbers have dropped so badly that some will soon be extinct.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't just the global warming that is the problem. It is over-allocation of water for cities, for crazy irrigation of crops such as cotton and rice, open channels and huge dams that have been built by multinationals which take so much of the water. It is the fact that most people haven't caught on to the fact that each household uses too much water. The town before the Murray mouth used to be a tourist town with a famous wooden boat and old river boat festival. At the moment, a tiny bit of river stops in wide stretches of sand which is becoming acidic with sulphuric acid and threatens the health of residents. People carry on as usual because they DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO and feel that their voices wouldn't be heard anyway and because it seems too hard to change the way they live. What to do to create the sort of change in people's behaviour that will make the difference???
This is a national disaster and we feel helpless.
Liz Hobbs