Ocean Sentry
An irrigator group in South Australia”s upper south-east says dredging in the Coorong has helped kill off a large part of the wetland. In its submission on the Federal Government”s Water Amendment Bill, the Meningie Narrung Lakes Irrigators Association says a lack of environmental flows in the Murray-Darling and continued dredging of the Coorong has lead to hyper-salinity in the system.
It says that’s changed the Coorong’s habitat from estuarine to marine and more than two-thirds of the wetlands has died.
The association wants more water taken from the Goulburn River in Victoria to help preserve the Murray’s lower reaches.
It says the problem is like a cancer, that will make its way further up the system if governments do not take action.
(From abc.net.au, Meningie, South Australia)
