Rudd orders Murray-Darling audit to save lower lakes

KEVIN Rudd has announced an independent audit of the entire Murray-Darling Basin system to save the lower lakes.

KEVIN Rudd has announced an independent audit of the entire Murray-Darling Basin system to save the lower lakes.

And the Prime Minister has extended a buyback of water rights to include purchasing entire properties in northern NSW and Queensland.

Speaking in Adelaide today after a federal cabinet meeting, Mr Rudd also announced the federal Government would co-fund a doubling of the capacity of a planned desalination plant for South Australia.

Underlining the risk to the state's water supply, Mr Rudd said the expansion of the desalination plant would produce up to 40 per cent of Adelaide's water needs.

Scientists have warned that the Murray's lower lakes and the world-renowned Coorong wetlands in SA will be dry before Christmas if water levels are not replenished.

While the Prime Minister conceded the system was "highly stressed", he would not say whether it was already too late to save the lakes.

"I don't want to say there is some magic solution. It is very difficult in the space of six months to turn back decades of neglect,'' he told reporters.

Mr Rudd blamed a "gross overallocation" of water entitlements in the northern part of the Murray-Darling Basin for the long-term problems the system was experiencing.
He confirmed that an acceleration of the $480 million buyback of water rights would extend to purchasing properties in northern NSW and Queensland.
Earlier, South Australian independent senator Nick Xenophon backed calls for an urgent Senate inquiry to find out how much water was available in the Murray system to save the lower lakes.
``This morning on radio the PM said there were just over 2000 gigalitres in storage in the Murray-Darling basin,'' Senator Xenophon said.

``The Murray-Darling basin authority says it is closer to 5000 gigalitres. Which one is it? It seems the PM has fluffed his figures.''


Federal Water Minister Penny Wong last week provoked environmentalists when she said there was not enough water in the basin to save the lower lakes.

The freshwater lakes are turning to acid and governments are considering flooding them with seawater in a bid to save them.

But critics want governments instead to buy more water from upstream irrigators - especially in the Darling region in Queensland and NSW - to try to save the lakes.

with wires