Growing and changing demands for water and the increasing impacts of climate change are adding to the challenge of ensuring everyone has access to a safe and reliable water supply.
A comprehensive review of research into the economic consequences of controversial water buybacks in the Murray-Darling Basin reveals many studies are of poor quality. Better standards are needed.
With the support of the Greens, there’s a chance the ‘Restoring Our Rivers’ Bill will pass. Will it be enough to put the Murray-Darling Basin Plan back on track?
Suburban development in Maricopa County, Arizona, with lakes, lush golf courses and water-guzzling lawns.
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Arizona is considering a multibillion-dollar desalination project to address its urgent water needs. Three water experts call for a go-slow approach and point to Israel as a role model.
Once again, First Nations in the Murray-Darling Basin have been shortchanged in water reform and shortchanged in the water market. It’s time to listen and actually deliver tangible outcomes.
A Western scholar proposes allocating water from the Colorado River based on percentages of its actual flow instead of fixed amounts that exceed what’s there – and including tribes this time.
A new book says Australia’s 20-year water trading experiment is sucking hundreds of millions of dollars each year out of the Murray-Darling Basin and directing water away from productive land.
Pipelines, dams, gadgets: does water management really need to be all about control and power? Adopting less masculine ideas and working with nature may be more prudent.
Quentin Grafton, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
A major new report from the Productivity Commission calls for an overhaul of Australia’s 17-year-old policy on water.
India’s civil society has opposed engineering-based water management such as large dams, river linking and canal irrigation, for environmental and social reasons, but often ideological reasons.
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Chetan Pandit, National Water Academy of India's Central Water Commission and Asit K. Biswas, University of Glasgow
India’s civil society, which for the past 30 years has been critical of India’s water policies, now has the opportunity to drive the policy recommendations for water management.
Across the NSW portion of the Murray-Darling Basin, Aboriginal people make up almost 10% of the population. Yet they hold a mere 0.2% of all available surface water.
It’s more freshwater than what the population of the Greater Sydney region uses, but finding this out wasn’t easy.
Farmers rally outside Parliament House on Monday, December 2 2019. The most important drivers of farmer exit in the Murray-Darling Basin are changing climate, economics and demographics.
Lukas Coch/AAP
Cities relied entirely on conserving and recycling water to get through the last big drought. We now have desalination plants, but getting the most out of our water reserves still makes sense.
The Menindee fish kills are a clear sign that ecosystems are losing resilience.
AAP Image
The Murray-Darling is not just a food bowl, yet the South Australian Royal Commission has found the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is failing its mission to protect the environment as well as irrigators.