MEDIA RELEASE

Not content with being a major contributor to the desiccation of creeks and rivers in the Murray-Darling and to the increased salinity of the system, in the midst of the nation?s worst water crisis the cotton industry is intending to increase its use of groundwater, as this is more cost-effective than purchasing impounded surface water at current prices.

Fair Water Use has been informed that twelve Southern NSW cotton growers will tap the already compromised groundwater reserves of the Basin to irrigate 2500 hectares of cotton this season. At an average irrigation rate of 6.3 megalitres per hectare (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2005-06), this equates to an additional 15,750 megalitres extracted from stressed local aquifers and, to all intents and purposes, exported.

In a recent publication, ?The shared water resources of the Murray-Darling Basin?, the CSIRO identified one of the most serious threats to the future of the Basin as the rapid increase in groundwater extraction. CSIRO scientist, Dr Tom Hatton, has also pointed out the stupidity of ?robbing Peter to pay Paul?, as groundwater extractions exacerbate the widespread impacts of the endemic overuse of surface water.

Fair Water Use, and an increasing percentage of Australians, believes that it is totally unacceptable to leave the waters of the Murray-Darling Basin at the mercy of the market. To continue to do so will deliver control of the availability and price of water into the hands of those who are most able to pay. Mother Nature will doubtless be left squatting on the banks of the dried-out Darling, proffering her begging-bowl: and the line of Australians queuing beside her will grow ever-longer.

The Murray-Darling is crying out for complete overhaul: a State of Emergency must be declared.