Environmental Flows

Why is action need?

There is evidence the River Murray is in trouble. Poor water quality; loss of native plants, animals, fish, forests and wetlands; and an increase in pests such as carp’ all point to a river and a landscape in decline. Scientific advice indicates that if we do nothing, the river’s health will inevitably get worse. This will affect our irrigation and other industries, our native plants and animals, and our communities.

One of the main causes of the decline is the large amount of water we take from the rivers of the Basin for irrigation and other uses. The need to supply this water during summer and autumn has also reversed the natural seasonal flow pattens in parts of the River Murray.

The declining health of the River Murray has be come increasingly apparent over the past decade and has been discussed at length by the Ministerial Council and stakeholders as well as in the media and community.
The return of some water to the River Murray is though to be necessary to create a healthy working river- one that assures us of continued prosperity, clean water and a flourishing environment. A healthy working rive is one that is managed to provide a compromise, agreed to by the community, between the conditions of the river and the level of human use. This requires an acceptable balance to be found between the often competing values of the river.

What is an Environmental Flow?

An ‘environmental flow’ is any managed change in a river flow pattern intended to maintain or improve river health. Environment flows can be achieved through;

- Making the best use of water currently available to the environment
- Saving water lost in channels and other distribution systems and redirecting it to
   the environment; and
- Reducing the amount of water removed from the river for human use.

Source: Murray-Darling Basin Commission Environmental Flows and the River Murray Fact Sheet (2002)

For more information on Environmental flows:
Visit: www.thelivingmurray.mdbc.gov.au