Our rivers and wetlands are on the verge of collapse
Image source: Jeremy Buckingham
Australia's $13 billion Murray-Darling Basin Plan was meant to save our rivers, but big irrigation corporations have instead come to the basin to gorge on the public purse, while ripping the lifeblood out of our rivers.
The state of the Murray-Darling Basin is heartbreaking. Millions of fish are dead, our mighty inland rivers are dying and communities are going without water. Over-extraction, corporate rorts and cosy deals with politicians have meant that there is not enough water in the system.
Money that was meant to be used to return water to the environment has instead been used to help huge irrigation companies expand and take even more water from the river and as it turns out, no-one in government monitors whether the millions spent on private water efficiency works ever actually achieve the intended benefit.
This cannot go on. The health of our rivers and communities depend on getting the Basin Plan back on track.
Two years ago, we watched in horror as Four Corners revealed that billions of litres of environmental water, bought with taxpayer money, were reportedly pumped out by irrigators in northern NSW, who tampered with meters to mask their water volumes. This report sent shock waves through government and industry and led to a comprehensive overhaul of compliance and enforcement by the NSW Government.
The fight continues. We need to we call on all State, Territory and Federal Water Ministers in the Basin to stop the rorts!
Sign the petition and join the thousands of people who want to save the health of our rivers.
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Rivers and wetlands
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