'Big Dry' turns farms into deserts (Australia)

[Barrett808]

Source: BBC

'Big Dry' turns farms into deserts
By Nick Bryant
BBC News, Australia

In the once-lush fields of South Australia, on land that borders the state's world famous Lower Lakes, farmer Nigel Treloar rounds up the herd with the help of his off-road motorbike.

It is one of the few things that has got easier as a result of Australia's worst drought in 100 years.

That is because he used to have 800 cows and now he only milks 250. There is not enough irrigation water from the nearby lakes to sustain a bigger herd.

Nigel took me to nearby Lake Albert, to what used to be a vast expanse of water. But now its waters have receded and much of it resembles a moonscape.

The pump and pipeline that once irrigated his land now lie in the open-air rather than underwater. He has been chasing the retreating water and has been losing the race.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7577528.stm

[Desertrose]

1. Sounds like it was helped along a bit, too.

The Big Dry - Australia's worst drought in 100 years - is only part of the problem. The decades-long mismanagement of the Murray-Darling River basin has exacerbated the dry conditions.

The water in the basin, which irrigates Australia's food bowl, has been over-allocated.

Farmers all along the Murray-Darling have purchased and were promised water allocations that the river system simply can no longer sustain.



Sounds familiar.

[Barrett808]

2. Yup.

That's where we're heading in the US.