$500 million to save the Murray Darling: 'Real money for real water in real rivers'
29 Aug 2003
Today the Council of Australian Governments took an historic opportunity to fundamentally reshape the way Australia manages its precious fresh water resources, according to WWF-Australia's Director of Conservation and convenor of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, Peter Cosier.
"Our founding fathers recognised the importance of water for the future of Australia - since then we have not managed water use well. Today's decision recognises the mistakes we have made and sets us on a new course.
"This is the moment in time when the right people were in the right place with the right plan."
"The Prime Minister of Australia, our Premiers and Chief Ministers have agreed to return real water to begin the repair of our greatest river system - the Murray Darling.
"In an historic move they have agreed to set up a system of tradeable water rights across which will pave the way for the sustainable management of this precious natural resource for the 21st century."
Australia's environment and the economic future of regional communities is more secure as a result of CoAG's decisions.
These include:
An agreement to develop a National Water Initiative, to:
- Return over allocated river systems such as the Murray Darling basin to sustainable levels.
- Give farmers and other water users greater security for their water.
- Encourage the expansion of water trading to allow water to be put to its best use
- Improve water conservation in our cities, which will mean better use of storm water and recycled water. City dwellers will have to get smarter about water use.
Investing $500 million over the next five years to begin returning water back into the Murray Darling and reversing the decline of our greatest river system.
Mr Cosier said: "CoAG's historic decision means there is now real money for real water in real rivers."
"The River Murray is dying. The $500 million investment means that we will be able to begin returning an additional one per cent of the average flow of the river annually.
"There will now be firm rules for returning water to over-allocated river systems to environmentally sustainable levels - this is best news for all Australians for a long time.
"All water users, including farmers, will now have perpetual access to a share of the water resource that will be available for consumption - this is great news for farmers and communities who depend on fresh water for their livelihoods.
"CoAG's historic decisions today are the result of the Governments realising how profoundly important fresh water is to Australia's future and how much trouble we were in - Australia was going to run out of water," Mr Cosier said.
"In the same way the Torrens title for land, which was developed by Australians in 1857 and is now used around the world, this new water title system could be another world first.
Australians developed Torrens title two years before Darwin published Origin of the Species - this new water title system has the potential to put Australia and the world on a path to changing the way that we all think about water.
