In light of recent fish kill events and decrease in the health of the Murray-Darling Basin, new funding announcements have surfaced from the office of the Victorian Minister for Water, Lisa Neville.
The Victorian Government, last week announced environmental water allocations continue to be sold to irrigators. 10 billion litres of environmental water will be sold to fund infrastructure works, attempting to provide habitat for fish at the Koondrook Weir in northern Victoria.
This and other projects come despite independent scientific evidence that state:
- Water is being over-allocated to irrigators upstream,
- Government water saving estimates have been miscalculated and grossly exaggerated,
- The cost to taxpayers for proposed river infrastructure works are 25 times more expensive than simply buying the water back from irrigators.
"I'd like people to think of the Basin as a fish tank.
You can't kill off the fish by not cleaning your tank, and then just go and get more fish. Especially if those fish were traded for water from the tank!
Healthy, adequate amounts of water need to be there, then the fish won't die in the first place, and continue to die through bad management."
- River Country Campaigner, Michael O'Dwyer.
As news arises on other proposed works, the River Country Collective ask that people tune into ABC's Four Corners on Monday the 8th of July, 8:30pm.
Titled 'Cash Splash', the program will investigate the effectiveness and accountability inherent to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
See the trailer here: 'Cash Splash'
Friends of the Earth will be hosting a screening party for the program. This will be followed by talks on what is shaping to be an increasingly contentious and critically important national debate.
Tune in or see you at FoE's screening party on Monday the 8th of July, 8:30pm.
For further information see our event page: Cash Splash: Four Corners Screening