So, all the reports say that October is the point of no return for the entire river system. If nothing happens by then, the entire system is beyond saving.ABC News wrote:Wong 'waiting for advice' on Murray-Darling crisis
Federal Minister for Water and Climate Change Senator Penny Wong says she is waiting for urgent departmental advice on what more may be done to help save the lower Murray-Darling river system.
Senator Wong spoke to The World Today after a stark warning from scientists about conditions in the system was leaked to the ABC.
The warning is contained in a report by the Natural Resource Management Board of the South Australian Murray-Darling Basin and was handed to ministers in May.
It says if action is not taken to increase water flows in the next six months, parts of the lower river system will die.
The report set an October deadline for action, but federal and state water ministers are not scheduled to meet until November.
At least four scientists on the government-appointed panel have told the ABC they are unhappy about what they say is the lack of prompt action to avert the impending crisis.
"It is a report that does tell us yet again how urgent it is to deal with the lower lakes and the Coorong," Senator Wong said.
"There are current interim measures, which is the pumping of water into Lake Albert, and I have asked my Department for further urgent advice about what we are able to do in the short term."
Senator Wong also says the problem has occurred over many years and is being exacerbated by the impacts of climate change.
But some scientists on the panel do not think governments appreciate the urgency of the situation.
They have told the ABC they are frustrated with what they see as feet-dragging on the issue.
National disaster
But South Australia's Minister for the River Murray Karlene Maywald says her state, with financial help from the Federal Government, has been working for months and spending millions of dollars pumping water back into the system.
"The State Government actually announced that we were doing this interim pumping project from Lake Albert, from Lake Alexandrina into Lake Albert to buy us time, through to perhaps September whilst this other work was undertaken," she said.
"And we made no secret of the fact that the Lake Albert in particular was at risk of major acidification and potentially total ecological collapse if we didn't act immediately.
"We took that action earlier this year, that pumping project is under way, it's not something this Government wants to do, it is something we've had to do as a consequence of the drought."
But she calls it a national disaster and says South Australia cannot alone save the parts of the Murray River that cross its borders.
New South Wales Water Minister Nathan Rees says the four basin states are making history but it does take time.
"The water purchases for the river health have already started and it's been in play for some months now," he said.
"The reality here [is] we don't fix 100 years of poor decision-making in a matter of months. And whilst we can make all the buy-backs we like now with the money that is available, if the water is not there because it hasn't rained, then we can't create it."
And his Victorian counterpart Tim Holdings also denies governments have been sitting on their hands.
"In fact earlier this year at the Murray Darling Basin Commission, ministers endorsed a plan to provide emergency watering for Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert in the Coorong, in South Australia at the mouth of the Murray, and those measures were designed to deal with some of the very issues that this scientific evidence reveals - which is that the river is under huge stress in those areas," he said.
"We've also been returning hundreds of billions of litres of water to the Murray River as part of the Living Murray initiative.
"Victoria is on track to deliver its commitment under the Living Murray initiative and we've been able to release water, even in the midst of our worst drought ever, we've been able to release water for strategic environmental watering along a number of icon sites and that's meant that places like the Barmah Forest and other parts of the Murray that are critically endangered have been able to receive some water, even in the midst of this very difficult drought."
There's been no comment from Queensland's Water Minister but his spokesman does point out that his state only draws 3.5 per cent of water from the Murray Darling Basin.
The Greens say the response today from Government has not been good enough and Senator Christine Milne says the Murray Darling's epitaph could read: 'a lack of leadership killed this river'.
"The consequences of populist policies, the consequences of giving out $30 billion in tax cuts, are now being delivered on the nation with the death of the Murray River and the decision by both state and federal government ministers to defer consideration of the issue of the Murray, even though scientists have told them that the river is dying and in many cases will be irreparably damaged if we don't act now by putting water back in the river," she said.
"John Howard knew it, Mr Rudd knows it, Peter Garrett has done endless trips up the Murray while he was head of ACF, talking about the plight of the Murray.
"Now it's quite clear there's a deliberate strategy to give out tax cuts but not put water back in the river. They all know that needs to happen. Over-allocation has caused the death of the Murray and now we're going to see the results of that.
"I don't think people in Australia are going to be very impressed with this lack of leadership."
Senator Wong objects. She says a problem that has been manifesting for years cannot be solved by a new government six months in.
And she says she will continue to spend the $3.1 billion allocated to buy back water from irrigators, but stresses there are no guarantees.
Adapted from a report by Tanya Nolan for The World Today.
The government response to this? Delay talk of the issue until their next meeting. In November.
