Darling River, Australia's Largest, Now A Series Of LInked Pools - 56% Of Basin's Water Diverted

[hatrack]

THE Darling River is flowing no more, with the iconic waterway reduced in places to a series of interlinked pools. Around Wilcannia, in far-western NSW, a combination of drought and upstream irrigation have brought the river to a standstill. Neville Crisp, 76, used to water ski on the river during the 1940s and 50s. Now he is angry about the state of the river and says that the only solution is additional environmental flows.

"The Government has known about the problem since the 1980s," Mr Crisp said. "The river is a mess, it is a national disgrace. They blame global warming and everything else, but they do nothing. We haven't had floods since the 1970s, not a decent one. I am angry about this river and what has happened to it. It was a beautiful river and now it is a hazard."

Mr Crisp's wife, Betty, says their house on the edge of the Darling was a wonderful place to bring up children. "They would swing ropes into the river, go canoeing, fishing, catch yabbies," she said. "This was a magic place. Now there's nothing. When the kids come back with their kids, they don't catch anything."

The Darling has stopped flowing before; it didn't flow for 350 consecutive days during the intense drought of 2006 and 2007. Local grazier Mark Etheridge, who is also president of the Australian Flood Plain Association, blames the level of extraction from the river for its poor health. "This is quite a natural stoppage, this is one of the events where there is a lack of rain," he said. "But with the advent of irrigation on this river, we are amplifying the drought. These are the worst conditions I have ever seen."

EDIT

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24151039-11949,00.html

[pscot]

1. It's not like we don't know

what we're doing to ourselves. Our capacity for self-delusion is limitless.

[GliderGuider]

2. It's OK, we're the smartest species on the planet. We'll fix it...

...later.