Billions of dollars would be saved under national water protection
22 Mar 2006
Australia's remaining healthy rivers, creeks, wetlands, floodplains and estuaries would be protected and billions of dollars in repair bills saved under a proposal by WWF to consolidate Australia's existing water management programs.
A new report released by WWF today, Securing Australia's Natural Water Infrastructure Assets, proposes a national framework and a four-step plan to coordinate the identification and protection of aquatic ecosystems deemed to be of high conservation value in Australia.
"Australia's natural water infrastructure assets underpin Australia's economic growth, society's wellbeing and our unique biodiversity," the report's author and WWF's Freshwater Manager Dr Stuart Blanch says.
"But efforts to protect these waterways have been disjointed with around 20 major programs working separately around the country, including the National Water Initiative and the National Parks program," Dr Blanch says.
"To avoid the mistakes of the past and ensure the future of Australia's water assets, we need to bring all these pieces together and coordinate efforts to protect our healthy waterways."
Australia has three million kilometres of rivers and creeks, at least 16 million hectares of nationally important wetlands, and over 1,560 estuaries.
"In Australia we are lucky enough to have a choice - we can leave our rivers in a healthy state for the benefit of future generations or we can mismanage these assets and face huge repair bills," says Professor Peter Cullen from the WWF-convened Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists.
"This report provides important policy advice to our political leaders and stresses the need to develop some common language around high conservation rivers to avoid the costly mistakes of the last century."
There are countless examples of poor water management in Australia, from shrinking floodplains and dying river gums in the south to pollution and sediments washing into the Great Barrier Reef lagoon in the north.
"Lessons learnt from Murray Darling and other stressed waterways show that it's ten times cheaper to protect healthy water systems than repair them once they've been degraded," Dr Blanch says.
"Up to $5 billion has already been dedicated to repairing degraded rivers like the Snowy River and the Murray but we can avoid spending that kind of money in the future by protecting the healthy rivers we have left."
The report proposes that all of Australia's aquatic ecosystems be classified according to their conservation status, and that all of those deemed to be of high conservation value be protected by 2010.
As the 4th World Water Forum finishes in Mexico, WWF is calling on Australia's leaders to show their commitment to securing our water assets and establish a set of national targets to protect remaining healthy aquatic ecosystems.
More information
Download a copy of the report.
Media contacts:
Charlie Stevens, Press Officer, WWF-Australia
Phone: 02 8202 1274
Mobile: 0424 649 689
Dr Stuart Blanch, Freshwater Manager, WWF-Australia
Phone: 08 8941 7554
Mobile: 0427 957 868
Professor Peter Cullen, The Wentworth Group
Mobile: 0418 278 811
