Darling River System In Deep Trouble Already, 20% Reduction In Flows w/i 25 Years, Models Say

[hatrack]

THE Darling River's flow has been halved by evaporation, government reservoirs, hillside dams on farms and huge private irrigation storages. The river is being devastated by over-extraction, a report for the Murray-Darling Basin Commission has found.

The State of the Darling, the first hydrological assessment of the entire river system, will add weight to the Federal Government's attempt to take control of the Murray-Darling Basin in a $10 billion rescue.

Enough water to fill Sydney Harbour four times over - about 2 million megalitres - is evaporating from storage dams along the river each year. This is a quarter of the river's annual average flow and has contributed to the astonishingly rapid demise of a number of internationally recognised wetlands.

The water reaching three of the Darling system's most important wetlands has fallen dramatically - by more than half into Narran Lakes and nearly a quarter into the Macquarie and Gwydir marshes.

EDIT

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/devastated-system-dying-of-thirst/2007/03/06/1173166697744.html

[RestoreGore]

1. My response

http://water-is-life.blogspot.com/2006/11/outback-spirit-dries-up-in-face-of.html