Updated
A group representing South Australian and Victorian irrigators says it will try to have the Murray-Darling Basin plan declared unconstitutional by the High Court.
Murray Valley United says the Water Act breaches irrigators' rights under Section 100 of the Constitution.
Group president Greg Milner says the Act is ill-conceived and was put together hastily in 2007.
"We want certainty of water for our irrigators. At the moment it's all uncertain and it means that we are going to have to stay on the land a whole lot longer," he said.
"It means young people aren't wanting to come onto the land because of uncertainty. We'll be a dying breed.
"We believe that farmers and food producers are more important than frogs and a few gum trees. It's about human beings, it's about the social fabric of society and when this is taken out of your towns up and down the Murray, especially the smaller towns, it really has a big impact."
A cherry grower at Barmera in the SA Riverland, Joe Gropler, says the legal challenge will play a huge role in determining the future of the region's growers.
"If the Murray-Darling Basin plan is in place and we haven't got water security, I'd say that a lot of permanent plantings will wither and die because we'll have to walk away," he said.
"What's the point in me getting my sons to take over this property without water security?
"There's no future here, it's all finished if there's no water security."
Research has found nearly half the key environmental sites of the Murray-Darling Basin will be at high risk of long-term degradation under the current Basin plan.
The Australian Conservation Foundation released new mapping of the Basin, showing 48 key environmental sites which it says will not be returned to health under the 2,750-gigalitre annual flows proposal.
Ruchira Talukdar of the Foundation says the mapping shows the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) is failing to address the environmental outcomes it has set out to achieve.
"These are targets that the MDBA set for themselves, these are not targets that environmental groups have come up with so definitely putting an improved plan on the table is what is required," she said.
Topics: irrigation, rural, laws, law-crime-and-justice, activism-and-lobbying, water-supply, water-management, water, murray-darling-basin, rivers, environment, barmera-5345, sa, australia, renmark-5341, goolwa-5214, mildura-3500, vic, wodonga-3690, shepparton-3630, horsham-3400
First posted
Sarah Farnsworth 18 Sep, 2012
-
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-18/irrigators-plot-high-court-water-fight/4267006
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com
Anda baru saja membaca artikel yang berkategori
Gaya Hidup
dengan judul
Irrigators plot High Court water fight
. Anda bisa bookmark halaman ini dengan URL
https://sisatruk.blogspot.com/2012/09/irrigators-plot-high-court-water-fight.html
.
Belum ada komentar untuk " Irrigators plot High Court water fight "
Post a Comment
Beri komentar anda.