The dry last pitch: Article Summary

The article ‘The dry last ditch’ was published in The Economist on October 23rd 2008. The link to the article is: http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12480905 .

‘The dry last ditch’ focuses on the problems of Australia’s biggest river system; the Darling and the Murray River, both severely affected by the worst drought of the century in addition to constant farm irrigation. The Australian federal government as well as the New South Wales (NSW) state government is trying to hinder the complete ‘annihilation’ of this river system on which so many depend with the water –buyback – scheme. This scheme involves buying water entitlements from farmers, which would reduce the amount of farm irrigation that uses up unusually high amounts of water. An example of this is Toorale, a 91000 hectare large farm, whose antique water storing system’s inefficiency allows for the evaporation of 2 meters of stored water per year. The government hopes to send back 14 billion liters to the rivers, which was the amount Toorale was allowed to take from the rivers per year.
However, the price for this project is a big one and not one that everyone is willing to pay. Toorale again plays a major part, since the abolition of the farm, the most productive of the reason, would shrink the economy by 10%, in addition to creating unemployment. The debate of keeping current conditions or aiding an environmental cause remains disputed. Though the water buyback plan isn’t perfect, it seems as though at the moment there is no other way to avert an oncoming environmental disaster. If the goal of cutting the water consumption of these rivers by 53% is an attainable goal is the question…