Protecting the River Murray
South Australia’s River Murray is part of the Murray-Darling Basin catchment area covering around one million square kilometres across parts of South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.
The Basin is still recovering from the worst drought since record keeping began in the 1890s.
Over-allocation of water within the Basin’s river systems is the other key factor creating national water security concerns. Water allocations and extractions have far exceeded rainfall for many years.
The new Murray-Darling Basin Authority is reviewing current water allocation practices within individual States to develop a strategic Basin-wide plan that will remove State boundaries and manage the Basin river systems as one. A new framework for water allocation across the Basin will be released in 2011.
