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A healthy Murray-Darling Basin for life
Addie and Jesse Robinson testing water quality in Mildura.
Photo: Cecilia Burke, DSEWPaC
The Government announced last week its intention to deliver up to an additional 450GL of water to the Murray-Darling Basin to restore Murray-Darling Basin rivers to health, support strong regional communities and ensure sustainable food production.
The Government will provide $1.77 billion over 10 years from 2014 to relax key operating constraints allowing up to 450GL of additional environmental water to be obtained through projects to ensure there is no social and economic downside for communities.
Investment will occur primarily in on-farm efficiency works that generate water savings for the environment and other projects as agreed by states. Funding will also be used to remove constraints such as low lying bridges and undersized dam outlets.
Further information about the importance of restoring river health in the Murray-Darling Basin can be found at: Restoring river health in the Murray-Darling Basin: Commonwealth Environmental Water
Australia-China water cooperation
Photo: Chinese Ministry of Water Resources
The Minister for Water Tony Burke and Australian Government officials recently met with their Chinese counterparts to discuss water management.
Minister Burke and the Chinese Minister for Water Resources, Chen Lei, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on water cooperation. The MoU will support continuation of the strong bilateral relationship between the two countries in relation to water management.
China and Australia have common water challenges and interests. These include dealing with large scale floods and droughts and the need to work out the allocation of scarce water resources between competing needs.
At the recent meetings Minister Burke spoke about how water markets and water trading in Australia are used to meet environmental water needs. He also updated Chinese officials on progress with development of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
The MoU will facilitate exchanges of water information and research into the future.
More information on the MoU with China is available at: Memorandum of Understanding with the Chinese Ministry of Water Resources
Photo: Chinese Ministry of Water Resources
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