No relief for drought-crippled region

Source: Agencies  |   2008-7-11  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

A decade-long drought in Australia's most important crop-growing region is worsening and there is little hope for relief from either saving rains or a new government conservation plan, officials said yesterday.

The Murray-Darling river system, which produces 40 percent of Australia's fruit, vegetables and grain, is facing an economic and ecological crisis because of a decade of below-average rainfall, according to the report carried out by the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, which monitors water flows in the river catchment. Even worse, the report said hopes of the cooler months bringing drought-breaking rains had faded.

"Regrettably, the drought is getting worse," commission chief executive Wendy Craik told reporters.

And Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has conceded that his government's new conservation plan won't produce results fast enough to stave off all of the environmental damage to the river system.

Much of Australia has been gripped for a decade by its worst drought in a century, hindering the country's economic growth and prompting drinking water restrictions in all major cities.

Economist Ross Garnaut said in a government-commissioned report this month that the Murray-Darling basin faced a 92-percent decline in irrigated agricultural production by the year 2100 because of drying conditions.

The drought already has bankrupted some farmers and threatened the economic viability of some of the local agricultural towns.

Yesterday's report said the level of rainwater to the Murray-Darling system in June was the lowest on record.