Australia (Commonwealth Union) – Excessive water extraction has brought serious environmental destruction across the world, with threats of pollution and endangering fish, with a new study highlighting how poor water management and excessive water extraction is leading to the dry up the Darling River.
The Darling River is Australia’s 3rd longest river, around 1,472 km long.
Researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) and the University of New South Wales studied the effects of climate change and water resource management on this River over the last 40 years. Researchers found the main cause of river flow decline on the Darling River, which is referred to by indigenous people as the Baaka River, is not due to a drying climate but the ongoing and “large-scale” water mismanagement.
Lead author of the study and ARC Laureate, Fellow Professor Quentin Grafton from ANU stated that their analysis divided the effects of reducing flows in the Darling River as a result of long-term meteorological trends from other factors, like elevated water extractions. He further indicated that they saw that half the reduction in river flows on the Darling River over the last 40 years was a result of factors other than elevated temperatures or reduced rainfall.
“The Darling has had high rates of water extraction for decades — driven by water allocation and provided by 15 main channel weirs and over 1,000 small weirs along its 1,000 km length, including upstream,” he said.
Professor Grafton also indicated that the main finding is that most of the river flow reduction on the Darling River over the last 40 years was almost certainly due to increased water extractions.
Co-author of the study Professor Richard Kingsford, Director of the Centre for Ecosystem Science at UNSW, also stated poor water management was responsible for the drying of the river and echoed the need to reduce water extraction.
