A newly released CSIRO report says climate data from 1895 to 2006 shows water flowing through the Murray mouth has dropped from 12,233 gigalitres a year (one gigalitre is 1000 million litres) to 4733 gigalitres. The river now no longer flows through its mouth 40 per cent of the time. Before agricultural and urban expansion over the past 50 years, the river stopped flowing through its mouth only 1 per cent of the time.
Launching the report in Canberra yesterday, Federal Climate Change and Water Minister Penny Wong said ''years of over-allocation and drought in the face of climate change'' had created a critical situation across the Murray-Darling.
Over the next 20+ years this situation is likely to only get worse - over allocation is a major problem in the Murray Darling Basin. Will the Federal Government's 'buy back' be enough to save the Basin?
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