After posting a couple of comparison images of the River Murray back in January, one of my friends pointed out that the two sets of images were from different times of the year – so there could have been some seasonal effect on the river levels.

I was not so sure – January and February promised exactly 0 mm of rain, and indeed, we have had a total of 8mm since the new year (and all of it in March).

March 2002

March 2009

I tried to find some other comparison images on the internet – there have been a lot of them printed in the local press. Unfortunately, I couldn’t readily find the dramatic images that are printed.

On the other hand, I found some more interesting reading on the Murray River, its river levels over time, and also the problems in maintaining those levels.

I recently rediscovered a viewpoint along the River Murray that I had visited when I first came to Australia in 2002.

The Rivers Murray and Darling are the major sources of water for most of the population west of the Great Dividing Range in New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia – even southern Queensland. In fact, for South Australia, the River Murray is pretty much it – there are other minor rivers, but without the Murray, there is no way that we could support our current population or, more importantly, our agriculture.

Unfortunately, for South Australia, management of the Murray-Darling system has been fragmented between the states that rely on it – which has meant that New South Wales and Victoria have been able to take as much water as they wanted before the Murray crosses over into South Australia and then empties into the sea. Thankfully, the Federal government has finally stepped in, and is starting to ensure supply into South Australia.

The country has also been in a severe drought for many years now – one which could go on for a long while more.

All this means that the river is starting to dry up – I’ve been hearing stories on the radio, and seen pictures on the TV and in the paper – but I hadn’t really been able to see it for myself (it’s about 100 km out to the river from Adelaide). It also took me a while to find the same place that I had taken the images above so that I would get a good comparison of the situation.

The Murray, and its surrounding wetlands, are really suffering from this drought, and local wildlife is starting to really struggle.

And yet, we still have a whole bunch of people in Adelaide who insist on growing an “English country garden” with water-thirsty plants all over the place, and maintaining a luscious green lawn. And in order to do this, they quite happily and blatantly break water regulations by heading out with their hosepipes at any time of the week (restrictions are down to a few hours on either a Saturday or Sunday, as well as another few hours in the mid-week, depending on the side of the road).

And then there are the “bore-hole” waterers – who are tapping into the underground aquifers and sucking them dry. Most worrying here is the distribution of bore-hole permits – almost all of the private permits are in the most well-off parts of the city.

Water is a vital resource – it is needed by everyone for everyday life, and also by agriculture to provide food and export income, and also to support our wildlife. And, thanks in part to the selfish actions of a great many gardeners, water is becoming scarcer by the day.