This post was sent to me by one of our members I think that this discussion is getting too broad and at times darting off on emotional tangents which detract from a very important issue which MUST be resolved. To win any argument, you must deal in facts. As soon as emotions enter the argument, your opponent has the upper hand. We all know about the flood plain harvesting and water diversions in south west QLD and northern NSW. This needs to be addressed as the root cause of the degradation of the entire length of Darling river, The Great Darling Anabranch and the Menindee Lakes. I suggest that we try to focus on the events of December 2013 and January 2014 in an effort to prove that The Murray Darling Basin Authority was culpable and should be held accountable for their gross mismanagement of the water stored in Menindee Lakes, and further, try to establish which individual person had the final say on the issue with the view of possibly launching a class action against the MDBA and that individual. December 2013 • Menindee Lakes Scheme was at 55% capacity • Lake Victoria was at 88% capacity, Lake Alexandrina & Lake Albert were full • The Murray river had excellent flows • Swamp areas along the Murray river in South Australia had water A decision was taken by the Murray Darling Basin Authority the release large volumes of water from the Menindee lakes in a “use it or lose it to evaporation” defence for their actions. I have difficulty understanding their definition of “use it” as this water passed through the river system and out to sea as it was not needed, and in fact caused issues for some river front property owners. Had this water been held in Menindee Lakes, sure we would have lost some to evaporation, but we would still be holding a fair bit of water in the upper lakes and not facing the start of summer with less than 17% in our lakes, much of that unusable. Forecasts are for a very hot dry summer. We in Broken Hill are going to be in serious trouble with water supplies dwindling. My bet is that South Australia will have these issues as well, and will be calling for water which we may have been in a position to release had the MDBA not made their disastrous decision to drain Menindee Lakes in December 2013.
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 10:22:42 +0000
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