Murray Darling Basin runs dry

Well it had to happen, no irrigation water for the Murray Darling Basin. An abrupt statement from John Howard confirmed that there would be no water for the irrigators, he warned of expected rises in food prices and that many fruit trees may perish.

A similar climax is approaching South East Queensland, despite the denials from Anna Bligh.

At current usage the Wivenhoe dam will run dry in July 08, if the recycling scheme is completed on time it will just delay the inevitable until August 09.

It is easy to blame the drought or global warming but this is just not valid. We have plenty of rain; we receive almost a million litres per day per person in Australia

So what is the problem? The heart of the problem is the threshold for run off. We live in an arid climate which dries the surface of the soil forming an insulating crust. While this protects the water deeper in the soil from further evaporation it also has to be wetted out before there is any run off into our dams. This means we only catch the large freak rains, all the smaller rains, which comprise the bulk of our rainfall, are simply absorbed by this crust and do not fill our dams.

We rely on catching enough water from these freak rains to fill our dams, and then hope the dams are big enough to provide the bulk of our water until the next freak rain. It is a fundamentally flawed system which is bound to fail at some time, with global warming and population pressure it is now occurring sooner rather than later. Even if there were a mega rain storm tomorrow it would simply put off the crisis for another five years.

We need an alternative strategy of harvesting more of these smaller rains and minimising evaporation to provide much of our water and keep the water in our dams in reserve. We should not be using our dam water when this alternative water is available.

For more info see;-

Summary of community action (8kb html)

Full text Community action on water (PDF file 1.8 meg)

Waterright is involved in the continuous process of developing, documenting and promoting these technologies, specifically

Harvesting smaller rains

wicking beds,

percolation holes and

anticipatory irrigation.

download software from www.irrigatewisa.com.au

It is hoped that one of the positives from the collapse in the Murray Darling system leads to rethinking of our water strategy.

This months video - anticipatory irrigation adaptive irrigation scheduling (Mp4 13 Meg)

Global warming is changing the whole water scene. Community action on water looks at how individuals and communities can protect themselves against water shortage.