Are Murray-Darling Basin rivers getting the water they need to stay healthy?

The poor condition of flow-dependent ecosystems continues to be documented in monitoring and evaluation assessments including the Sustainable Rivers Audits, the 2020 Murray–Daring Basin Plan evaluation and the 2021 State of the Environment Report. [...] 6-9 Without sufficient flows, there are serious and irreversible consequences for the long-term ecological health of the Basin, the quality of water, and the wellbeing of communities who depend on healthy rivers, including the 40 Aboriginal Nations that call the Basin home. [...] Modelled data showed that the long-term average volumes of water available in the river system underpins achievement of flow requirements: the more water available in the system, the greater the opportunities for environmental water requirements to be met. [...] Operational constraints are a key reason for this, but many achievable targets are also not met in the modelling”.11 The Sustainable Diversion Limits (SDLs), legislated in the Basin Plan, reflect inadequacies in the ecologically sustainable level of take, and the lack of achievement of more than half of the environmental water requirements we assessed (Figure 2). [...] A way forward If we are to reverse the current trajectory of decline, we need to ensure that the Basin Plan secures the minimum flow volumes needed, at the right place and the right time, to protect the health of the river and its people.