TRANSCRIPT
The Murray-Darling Basin has been described as the beating heart of Australia's waterways.
It covers more than a million square kilometres and provides water to more than 3.6 million people.
But despite the investment of billions of dollars and 30 years of policy reforms, new research shows the river system is declining in health, causing widespread impacts.
Dr Matt Colloff from The Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists says despite a decade of work, improvement has been minimal.
"The Murray Darling Basin Plan is a $13 billion public expenditure effort trying to, with the objective of restoring water from irrigators to the environment. We are 10 years into that plan, and we expected to see some significant environmental improvements, but of 12 environmental indicators we looked at, only two were actually met, and that was a bit of a shock."
The group of scientists behind the report are now calling for more to be done to turn this around.
The Murray-Darling Basin is the largest river system in Australia and the plan to protect it hopes to keep enough water in the system to improve the environment.
Of the 27 total indicators reviewed by scientists, 74 per cent showed either no improvement or a worsening of conditions.
Dr Colloff says the declining water conditions are leading to a decline in animal populations in and around the waterway.
"We've seen water bird populations decline overall in the Murray Darling Basin by about sixty percent. We've also seen an increase in the frequency of fish kills several in Menindi lakes in the Barker Darling River around Menindi in recent times since 2019."
The conclusions of the paper are drawn from the measurements of 27 indicators across themes of indigenous, economic, environmental, social and compliance, with data collected from 1980 to 2023.
Worst affected by the waterways decline is Indigenous communities.
Experts, like Indigenous Water Science Researcher and Kamilaroi man Brad Moggridge, have described the Indigenous-owned water entitlements as grossly inadequate.
"It's quite upsetting when you think about it. We've got done over. Again. And as indigenous people, there's 46 odd nations in the Murray Darling Basin and we don't really have a say into where water flows and we don't really have access to water and then we don't really have access to clean, healthy, drinking water. You know, as a basic human right, we don't get that access so that was sort of raised in our report as well.”
Craig Wilkins from the Murray Darling Conservation Alliance says the findings of the report are not surprising, but believes there is still hope for improvement.
"In many ways, this is not surprising. We've known for a while that the Murray Darling Basin Plan has not delivered what was promised. There's been a decade of delays and missed opportunities. The good news, though, is that at the end of last year, there was a bit of a turnaround, when the Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek introduced the Restoring our Rivers Act, and that has enabled a shift in prioritization and a new approach, which we hope will start the long return to full health for this so important river system."
Within the report, scientists have offered a number of recommendations to the government about ways to improve the plan and restore the waterway.
The recommendations include improving reporting frameworks to better track progress, as well as holding those responsible for the improvements to account if the waterway continues to decline.
Craig Wilkins says better policy action and more transparency of the data collected is necessary to keep the plan on the right track.
"We are not doing what is required to return this river to health, it's really important that everyone steps up and invests the time and the right policy action to turn around on this decade of missed opportunity and delay."
