Over the past decade, Australians living in capital cities have dramatically reduced their consumption of water from centralised reservoir systems. This has been achieved through the installation of water…
The proposed Murray-Darling Basin Plan has been one of the most controversial pieces of public policy in Australia’s recent history. There has been the predictable divide between irrigators calling for…
Money isn’t the only way of measuring the Murray-Darling’s environmental benefits, but it’s a useful one.
CSIRO
One of the big challenges around the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s Proposed Basin Plan is to work out just how much the basin’s environment would benefit from the plan. When the Guide to the proposed…
Almost 90% of the world now has access to drinking water, but there is still a long way to go.
barefoot photographers of tilonia/flickr
Did you hear about the latest success for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)? Don’t be ashamed to say no – most of the world missed it with you. So what happened? You’ll remember that the MDGs are…
A new national partnership agreement could allay a lot of CSG worries, if the states sign up.
kateausburn/Flickr
A new national agreement designed to protect water resources from coal seam gas extraction and coal mining could offer a level of protection so far unseen in Australian environmental legislation. Any states…
Last year will go on record as one of significant natural disasters both in Australia and overseas. Indeed, the flooding of the Brisbane River in January is still making news as the Queensland floods inquiry…
Northern Australia has a lot of water, but intensive agriculture may not be the best use for it.
feral arts
The millenium drought has broken in the south, but that hasn’t diminished interest in developing the seemingly vast water resources of northern Australia. The recent announcement of a multi-million dollar…
How can we say who gets what water when?
urbangarden
Since the MDBA (the Authority) released the long awaited Plan for the Murray-Darling Basin, the response has been both predictable and somewhat muted. Most predictable have been calls for certainty, based…
CSIRO, like many other research institutions, has helped provide research, models and data to inform the development of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. But the proposed Basin Plan, which was released on…
South Australian communities know what it’s like to live without water.
AAP
When the Murray Darling Basin Authority commissioned me in 2011 to examine the social impacts on the Lower Murray and Lakes communities of low flows and drought, I was confronted with irrigation farmers…
Craig Knowles is ready and waiting for your submissions to the plan.
AAP
Yesterday’s release of the proposed Basin Plan for managing the Murray-Darling represents a significant step towards managing one of Australia’s greatest natural assets. The key to the plan’s success will…
We know water is important to environmental health, but a lot of the details are still fuzzy.
wazzasworld
The release of the Draft Murray-Darling Basin plan earlier today, and the announcement that 2,750 gigalitres would be returned to the environment, was followed by predictable outrage. Irrigators said that…
It doesn’t take much for sewage to break out of its pipes and into waterways.
Claire Evans
Australia’s urban waterways are often polluted and sick. They suffer from a condition called the “urban stream syndrome”. A common factor that contributes is contamination from sewage. How and why does…
There are many good reasons why the general public, and in particular farmers, are concerned about coal seam gas (CSG) extraction. There are major gaps in our knowledge about the future impacts of CSG…
Water bursting from dams doesn’t just look impressive; it’s vital to the health of Australian rivers.
Kincuri
Water exploding from the Jindabyne Dam into the Snowy River made for compelling viewing in recent TV news reports. As well as being good TV, this water release highlighted the importance of releases in…
It could take years to learn more about the impacts of CSG, but can we afford to wait?
AAP/Alan Porritt
Independent MP Tony Windsor has said he won’t back the government’s Mineral Resources Rent Tax unless more is done to make coal seam gas mining sustainable. He has called for $200-400 million annually…
Professor of Civil, Environmental & Ecological Engineering, Director of the Healthy Plumbing Consortium and Center for Plumbing Safety, Purdue University
Professor in Practice on Environmental Innovation, School of Social and Environmental Sustainability, University of Glasgow, UK, National University of Singapore
Associate Professor of Environmental Economics and Policy, School of Environment, Science and Engineering, and Fellow of the Marine Ecology Research Centre, Southern Cross University