SA Minister For Water
Episode: SA Waterwise Special – Our Changing Climate
Presenter: Kim Syrus
The River Murray is a lifeline to all South Australian’s is in serious decline with record low inflows, increased salinity and a number of major issues have put an incredible strain on it. These are tough times and there are lots of questions to ask such as what is going to happen, how can we help and will there be enough water?
The Minister for Water Karlene Maywald is the best person to answer these questions and this is what she had to say:
Kim: How important is the River Murray important to South Australia?
Minister:
It is vitally important as it is a lifeblood, not only from the economic return we get from those people who produce from waters of the River Murray, it supplies Adelaide with 90% of its water during the dry year, it also supplies water to the upper south east from Spencer Gulf to York Peninsula.
Kim: How is the current drought affecting South Australia?
Minister:
It is having a huge impact, It is not just a drought in South Australia it is a drought right across the catchment area, it is in the dry inland areas as well as the river catchment and our irrigators are currently on 60% of their allocation and they are doing it tough and next year looks to be worse for them.
For the states perspective for urban users we are on enhanced level three restrictions. We are about three and a half, we are sitting at the moment and that is having significant impact on different industry sectors as well. We have a really good document called “Waterproofing Adelaide” that sets out a whole range of strategies for South Australia. That includes things like storm water reuse, effluent reuse and we are also looking at desalination plants seriously as a long term option and we are also looking at demand management, so ensuring people realise how precious water is and use it more wisely.
What we need to do most importantly is get more water back into the river for environmental flows. We have a cap on the amount of water that can be extracted out of the system. The commonwealth have put forward a ten billion dollar plan to address things like over allocation in those valleys where we have over allocated water to try and get the system back into balance and try and get more water back into the river and the environment.
If we can actually bring back into balance how much water is extracted from the river and make the environment a key component of the future planning, for the River Murray, we are going to see a healthy community. This means the extraction level will then be sustainable as well, so they won’t be under threat, they won’t feel like they are being pressured and they won’t feel like their future is going to be undermined by future government decisions. So bring it back into balance, get the frogs happy, get the trees happy and then the community it going to be happy too.
Presenter: Kim Syrus
The River Murray is a lifeline to all South Australian’s is in serious decline with record low inflows, increased salinity and a number of major issues have put an incredible strain on it. These are tough times and there are lots of questions to ask such as what is going to happen, how can we help and will there be enough water?
The Minister for Water Karlene Maywald is the best person to answer these questions and this is what she had to say:
Kim: How important is the River Murray important to South Australia?
Minister:
It is vitally important as it is a lifeblood, not only from the economic return we get from those people who produce from waters of the River Murray, it supplies Adelaide with 90% of its water during the dry year, it also supplies water to the upper south east from Spencer Gulf to York Peninsula.
Kim: How is the current drought affecting South Australia?
Minister:
It is having a huge impact, It is not just a drought in South Australia it is a drought right across the catchment area, it is in the dry inland areas as well as the river catchment and our irrigators are currently on 60% of their allocation and they are doing it tough and next year looks to be worse for them.
For the states perspective for urban users we are on enhanced level three restrictions. We are about three and a half, we are sitting at the moment and that is having significant impact on different industry sectors as well. We have a really good document called “Waterproofing Adelaide” that sets out a whole range of strategies for South Australia. That includes things like storm water reuse, effluent reuse and we are also looking at desalination plants seriously as a long term option and we are also looking at demand management, so ensuring people realise how precious water is and use it more wisely.
What we need to do most importantly is get more water back into the river for environmental flows. We have a cap on the amount of water that can be extracted out of the system. The commonwealth have put forward a ten billion dollar plan to address things like over allocation in those valleys where we have over allocated water to try and get the system back into balance and try and get more water back into the river and the environment.
If we can actually bring back into balance how much water is extracted from the river and make the environment a key component of the future planning, for the River Murray, we are going to see a healthy community. This means the extraction level will then be sustainable as well, so they won’t be under threat, they won’t feel like they are being pressured and they won’t feel like their future is going to be undermined by future government decisions. So bring it back into balance, get the frogs happy, get the trees happy and then the community it going to be happy too.
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