Conservation Council of SA CE Tim Kelly said: "It is critical we get a good outcome for the Murray-Darling Basin from the next draft of the Basin Plan. "
"These seven key outcomes developed by the Voices for the Murray-Darling need to be met if we are to secure the future of the Murray-Darling river system.
"This river is our nation's lifeblood, communities in four states depend on it, let's make sure as a nation we can continue to depend on it far into the future."
The seven key outcomes are:
- The Basin Plan must be based on credible, peer-reviewed science and the processes used to develop and implement the Basin Plan must be robust and transparent;
- The Basin Plan must return at least a minimum of 4000 GL of water to environmental flows or limit extraction to one third of natural flows in order to restore the ecological health and resilience of the Basin's river systems;
- The Basin Plan must provide sufficient water to enable the Basin's two million tonnes of salt and other pollutants to be flushed out through the Murray Mouth to the sea;
- The Basin Plan must provide optimal flows so that essential ecosystem services are maintained throughout the Murray-Darling Basin including;
- nutrient cycling and other river forming processes; and
- over bank flows to maintain wetlands and other floodplain habitats; and
- recharge of groundwater systems and alluvial aquifers;
- The Basin Plan must acknowledge Indigenous rights in cultural flows as integral to the Plan;
- The Basin Plan must represent value for the $10 billion of Australian tax-payers' money allocated to help communities adjust to the change by ensuring that policies, management frameworks and evaluation methods deliver tangible environmental outcomes, now and into the future; and
- The Basin Plan must have clear and transparent targets that trigger the revision of management frameworks, evaluation methods and adoption of improved scientific understanding.
