Free-flowing rivers - luxury or necessity?
17 Oct 2006
Most of the world's largest rivers are losing their connection to the sea and Australia must heed international lessons in river management if rural communities are to survive the current drought, says WWF, the global conservation organisation.
Only a third of the world's 177 large rivers (1,000 km and longer) remain free-flowing, unimpeded by dams or other barriers. Only 21 of these actually run freely from source to sea, and only one of Australia's rivers - the remote Cooper Creek that runs unimpeded from western Queensland towards Lake Eyre - makes the cut.
The WWF report Free-flowing rivers - Economic luxury or ecological necessity? shows that the ever increasing loss of free-flowing rivers is a disturbing trend around the world, which threatens the supply of water for drinking, sanitation, agriculture, fish and fishery products.
As Australia's Water Week gets underway, set against bleak sights of the diverted, dammed and dying Murray Darling system, WWF calls on governments to ensure enough water is set aside to maintain our most important rivers and wetlands, and urges water managers to act decisively to cut unsustainable extractions.
"Ongoing environmental declines across our intensively managed water resources suggest we have a lot of work to do to ensure water planning is more than just policy rhetoric and paperwork," said Averil Bones, WWF's Freshwater Policy Manager.
"Buying water back for the environment is essential. Calls for delivery of environmental flows - for example in the internationally significant Gwydir and Macquarie Marshes wetlands - must be heeded, and quickly."
The threat to wildlife through damming rivers cannot be understated. Large catfish populations in the Amazon and Mekong Basins, river dolphins in the Ganges Basin and wildebeest in the Mara River are all under threat from the effects of man-made barriers on these rivers.
"Queensland's ancient lungfish faces a very real threat of extinction if the Federal Environment Minister clears the way for the Beattie Government's dam plans in the Mary River," Ms Bones said.
"As well as providing irreplaceable habitat for valuable species, free-flowing rivers also regulate pollution, deliver nutrients to floodplain ecosystems and control sediment levels. Guaranteeing secure environmental flows through free-flowing water courses is the only way to maintain the ecosystem services they provide."
Find out more
Charlie Stevens, Press Officer, WWF-Australia
Phone: 02 8202 1274
Mobile: 0424 649 689
Email: cstevens@wwf.org.au
Averil Bones, Freshwater Policy Manager, WWF-Australia
Mobile: 0437 864 153
Notes
The WWF report, Free-flowing rivers - Economic luxury or ecological necessity? defines a free flowing river as any river that flows undisturbed from its source to its mouth, at either the coast, an inland sea or at the confluence with a larger river, without encountering any dams, weirs or barrages and without being hemmed in by dykes or levees. Download the report, Free-flowing rivers - Economic luxury or ecological necessity (PDF 1.4 MB)
