Queensland Country Life News Skip directly to: Search Box, Section Navigation, Content.

Opinion

Blogs

Drought not over for irrigators

Irrigators in the Murray Darling Basin are the forgotten people in the media's rush to declare the drought over.

With floods up and down the east coast, an unseasonally wet 'dry season' in the tropics, and Bureau of Meteorology declarations that a La Nina system is imminent, it has been easy for many to think the drought is over - done, dusted, finito.

But as every farmer knows, one shower does not a drought break.

It will be a long time before parched soils are saturated to the pointed that water will run off into the rivers, or soak through into acquifers.

This is particularly so west of the Great Divide where the bulk of irrigated agriculture takes place.

In the rush to report drought-breaking rains, some basic geography has been forgotten - the flooding falls have fallen largely to the east of the Divide. Croppers in the west are still not a certainty to harvest bumper crops.

It is this fact which should be impressed upon political leaders as they jostle over the intricacies of the Federal Government's $10 billion plan for the Murray Darling, or risk a loss of the urgency to negotiations that came with the darkest days of the drought.

Irrigators in the Murray have today started the season with a zero allocation.

It is those farmers who should not be forgotten, whether the drought breaks tomorrow or not, until governments start to implement a plan to improve water delivery infrastructure.

What do you think?

Posted By: Michael Thomson on 2/07/2007 3:29:30 PM | Comments (3)

Comments

Date: Newest first | Oldest first

The Artesian Basin is a finite water resource and until it is capped, metered and costed it will continuously be exploited and wasted til exhausted.

Posted by chris brennan on 4/07/2007 6:39:32 PM

NSW Water Resources/DLWC, DIPNR, DNR and now the current DWE are fully aware of the interconnection between surface and groundwater systems, and have known and warned of this for decades.

No point the Feds jumping on the bandwagon now, bit too late for that.

The lack of management is primarily due to political interference and a lack of resources.

There are only so many times you can restructure and realignment before there is no body left...

Posted by WAP on 4/07/2007 7:19:12 PM

Thoughts of an irrigator: We're pumping all the water, and throwing it about, we're pumping all the water, before it all runs out.

Don't leave it in the river, don't leave it in the earth, just pump that bloody water, for all you're bloody worth.

You know that if you leave it, they'll think its something spare, some greedy coot will have it, and take your bloody share.

Don't fret about the mob down further, they just love to gripe, if they were us they'd start the pumps, and shove it down the pipe.

When at last it peters out and you're sucking air and mud, don't flail about and panic or go acting like a coward, just get aboard a flamin' bus, and go and see John Howard. Thank you Ian.

Posted by dusty on 4/07/2007 10:14:09 PM

Michael Thomson is the Editor of FarmOnline. He has previously worked as the Canberra Parliamentary Press Gallery correspondent for the Rural Press group of agricultural newspapers, and as a senior reporter with Queensland Country Life.