THE leaked ecological condition report for the lower Murray shows it is about to breach critical environmental limits from which it may never recover and The Sustainable Rivers Audit gives the truth about the ecological health of the Goulburn River among others.
This situation is entirely man-made and puts the State Government's planned north-south pipeline into context.
All governments have promised to put enough water into the Murray River to maintain its health.
They have also undertaken to implement integrated catchment management, but they have done neither.
In this dire situation, 75 gigalitres of recovered water per year is to be sent south of the divide.
The State Government assumes this amount based on the long-term rainfall average.
This contradicts its present planning for sustainable yields, which is based on the past decade's much reduced rainfall.
They argue it is new water.
It is not.
It is the water that previously maintained the health of the Murray River and wetlands during dry conditions into the far distant past.
Even now, some leakage has environmental benefits.
Two wrongs don't make a water right.
We can only assume that the Brumby government sees its greatest risk in fractious urban voters suffering under Stage 4 restrictions, which now seem inevitable.
Why else would it ignore critical environmental risks, accuse protesters of lying and (privately) threaten rural councils with funding cuts if they object?
Melbourne's roofs shed sufficient water every year to supply itself.
It can cope better than the Murray.
Who is brave enough to provide our greatest river with the water it needs?
ELAINE JONES,
Kerang