It’s official: irrigators take too much
Daniel Lewis; 17/6/08
In the Condamine-Balonne river system - home to Australia’s biggest cotton farm, Cubbie Station - an average 53 per cent of the natural flow of surface water is being harvested, a CSIRO report has found. At Narran Lakes in north-western NSW, an internationally recognised wetland that relies on water from the system, this “extremely high level of use” has reduced the number of years with optimal bird breeding conditions by more than 60 per cent. The report also warns that under the median climate change outlook for the catchment, average annual run-off will have fallen by 9 per cent and total end-of-system flow by 12 per cent come 2030. The Condamine-Balonne region uses only 3 per cent of the surface water diverted for irrigation in the Murray-Darling Basin, but Cubbie Station alone can store as much water as Sydney Harbour.
Tags: Australia, Environment, Murray-Darling