‘No River Murray, No SA’: Quiet review will define SA’s future
The River Murray’s future is being decided after the Lower Murray was given a 50:50 chance of surviving the decade, Craig Wilkins says.
While we watch transfixed with the latest news from the middle east, a major review is quietly taking place that will, quite literally, define South Australia’s future.
For the last 150 years, our state – and particularly Adelaide – has relied on one water source above all else: the River Murray.
Even with the Port Stanvac desal plant, the Murray dominates. When we turn on our taps, most of the time, for most South Aussies, river water comes out.
And it’s not just households; industry relies heavily on the river as well. As do our famous wine regions like the Barossa or Clare Valleys. Even the rivers that run through our city, like the Torrens and South Para rely on the Murray to top them up during dry times.
There are different estimates of how long a human can survive without food, perhaps as much as two months, but there is no debate about surviving without water. We can’t last five days. Without water our basic life support systems shut down. Nutrients can’t reach cells, our temperature can’t be regulated through sweating, and our kidneys can’t flush out our waste.
It’s the same for our birds, fish, frogs, butterflies and forests.
Put simply: water is life.
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And the future of our state’s primary water source is being decided right now.
No wonder SA Senator Andrew McLachlan says: ‘No Murray, No SA’.
During our most recent horrendous dry period when the rain stopped falling across much of the state, it was Murray water that kept SA afloat.
Pipelines snaking across our landscape delivered water to as far away as Woomera in the North, Ceduna in the West and Keith in the Southeast.
This quite remarkable system of water delivery compensates for the fact that we are the driest state in the driest inhabited continent on earth.
But what happens when the Murray dries up?
It’s amazing how quickly we forget our past. Back at the height of the Millenium drought the river level in the Murray threatened to dip dangerously below the pumps that supplied Adelaide. The crisis became so desperate, contingency plans were drawn up to deliver bottled water to households in trucks.
After enormous campaigning pressure from South Australians and some messy politics, what emerged was the Murray Darling Basin Plan.
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This plan sets the operating rules for the Murray-Darling system. Its primary purpose is to ensure enough water is kept in the river to keep it healthy by stopping upstream states taking too much out.
While some good has occurred, the plan has missed the mark. After ten years and many billions of dollars spent, only two thirds of the water promised to South Australia has been returned. As a result, we see toxic algal blooms, mass fish kills, plummeting waterbird populations and water that smells ‘off’.
In January, Federal Water Minister Murray Watt formally declared the Lower Murray ‘critically endangered’. This rating means that there is a 50:50 chance – essentially a coinflip – that this system will collapse within ten years.
The time to act is now.
A generational review into the Murray Darling Basin Plan is underway, with public submissions closing at the end of this week.
As the state at the end of the river, South Australia gets everything that comes downstream, both good and bad. We have the most to lose if the plan fails.
And history shows that unless South Australians kick and scream, those upstream and those in Canberra won’t pay attention.
The next Basin Plan must do better. This is a once in a generation opportunity to get the river rules back on track.
It’s time for us to make our voices heard.
Have your say on the basin plan with submissions closing soon.
Craig Wilkins is co-national director of the Murray Darling Conservation Alliance and former Chief Executive of the Conservation Council of SA
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