MEDIA RELEASE

28th March 2012

In a letter received by Fair Water Use (Australia), the Chief Executive of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, Rhondda Dickson, confirms that the Authority has not factored the projected impacts of climate change into calculations contained in its Proposed Basin Plan.

The letter is dated the 22nd March 2012, ironically World Water Day, and the day on which Alexander Müller, assistant director-general for natural resources and the environment with the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), stated at the World Water Forum in Marseille, Paris:

"Climate change can be seen as a multiplier of already existing risks. Where people are vulnerable today, they will be even more vulnerable tomorrow. In the agriculture sector, adaptation to climate change is of the utmost importance, and water very often is at the centre of adaptation to climate change."

The FAO statement continued:

“A warming planet is widely predicted to result in more extreme weather patterns, bringing more frequent and intense droughts, flooding and heavy rainfall events . . . .  . . semi-arid areas of the Americas, southern Africa and Australia are expected to experience further reductions in water availability and quality.”

Dr Ian Douglas, National Coordinator of Fair Water Use (Australia), commented today, “ the failure of the Authority to make any direct allowance for the expected impact of climate change is irresponsible.”

“A sincere Basin Plan would promote the ability of the river system to cope with both drought and flood. This entails not only a reduction in overall diversions, to drought-proof the riverine environment as much as possible, but also the removal of non-essential, and frequently unregulated, “system constraints”,  to minimise the wide-ranging impacts of increased flows during flood events”, Dr Douglas concluded.