World Wetlands Day: An Australian Wetland in Crisis

CANBERRA, Australia, February 2, 2009 (ENS) - Today, Australia's Labor government used the occasion of World Wetlands Day to slam the former Liberal government for its treatment of the country's 65 wetlands that are officially designated under the Ramsar treaty.

World Wetlands Day marks the date of the signing of the Convention on Wetlands on February 2, 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea.

"A snapshot report into the management of Australia's Ramsar wetlands up to the end of 2007 paints a damning picture of poor administration and inaction under the previous government," said Environment Minister Peter Garrett, who is part of the government of Premier Kevin Rudd, which took office in December 2007.

The Ramsar Snapshot Study Report looks at the status and management of all 65 Australian Ramsar sites and assesses the completeness and currency of Ramsar site documentation for Australian Ramsar sites.

The Coorong wetland and the Lower Lakes are drying up. (Photo by Andy Burton)

"This study shows just how much the Howard Government and Malcolm Turnbull as environment minister took their eye off the ball when it came to the management and protection of our internationally recognized wetlands, including the Coorong," said Garrett. "It is a damning indictment of their failure to act in the face of drought and dangerous climate change."

The Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth region is a national park and lagoon ecosystem in South Australia, 156 kilometers southeast of Adelaide. This wetland forms at the terminus of the longest and largest river in Australia, the River Murray. The park is characterized by a complex interaction of sea water, the river water, rainfall and groundwater.

The Coorong and Lakes Alexandrina and Albert Ramsar site and many other Australian wetlands are increasingly drying. The two year period to the end of November 2007 is the lowest Murray System two year inflow period on record, according to a federal government report.

Wetlands conservationists demonstrate at Milang, holding a banner with the World Wetlands Day 2009 theme message. February 2, 2009. . (Photo by Kazzawhoo)

A banner demonstration and candlelight vigil was held today at Milang to mark World Wetlands Day 2009 with a focus on the sorry state of the Coorong and Lakes Alexandrina and Albert Wetland.

Experts are blaming the drought on climate change. In May 2008, Murray-Darling Basin Commission Chief Executive Dr. Wendy Craik announced the Australian government's conclusion that, "There is growing evidence that lower rainfall and reduced runoff in southeast Australia is linked to climate change."

The federal and South Australia governments have proposed to allow saltwater to flow into the freshwater wetlands through the lower lakes.

The Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council, on November 14, 2008, approved a strategy that if critical thresholds are reached, the barrages between the Coorong and Lake Alexandrina should be opened to transfer the minimum necessary quantities of salt water to avoid acidification in the Lower Lakes.

Now the South Australia government must prepare an environmental impact statement and publish it for public comment.

The saltwater inflow proposals have been widely criticized by Australian Greens and environmental groups.

In October 2008, the Greens' Senate Inquiry into water management in the Coorong and Lower Lakes found that, "contrary to the federal government's pessimistic view," a total of 60 gigalitres of fresh water by September 2009 is all that is required to provide enough environmental flow to stop Lakes Alexandrina and Albert from drying up and acidifying in the short term.

The mouth of the River Murray as it empties into the Southern Ocean (Photo by Gary)

Today, the Australian Conservation Foundation took the occasion of World Wetlands Day to call on the federal government "to put its money where its mouth is" and buy the water needed to keep all options open for the future of the Lower Lakes and Coorong.

"Politicians should not be giving up on South Australia's Coorong and Lower Lakes or making out that flooding these wetlands with seawater is the only option," said Dr. Arlene Buchan, ACF healthy rivers campaigner.

"January water allocation data shows there is plenty of water for sale on the market at the very reasonable price of around $300 per megalitre," Buchan said. "In fact, there is more water on the market at the moment than water brokers are able to sell - and the price is dropping."

"By purchasing this water the federal government would buy some much needed time for the Lower Lakes and the Coorong," she said. "Now is the time for the federal government to actively deal with the problem by buying the water needed to save these wetlands from a salty grave."

A team of Adelaide University scientists has presented a plan to resuscitate the southern Coorong by pumping the concentrated brine out into the ocean across the Younghusband Peninsula.

"The lower Coorong is so salty that even if the total reserves of the Murray were tipped into it, would not make any difference because it would still be too salty for the plants and fish to revive," said Adelaide University Professor David Paton last September.

"And that's unlikely to happen anytime soon because any fresh water available would be used to fill the Lower Lakes which would take 1,000 gigalitres," he said.

Sunset over the drying Coorong wetland (Photo by Fabio de Francesco)

The brine, which is eight times saltier than seawater, would be gradually replaced with rainfall runoff from the lower reaches of the Coorong, rain, hopefully, and seawater from the northern part of the Coorong, Paton said.

The Coorong crisis has been building over a long time. In 2005, Nick Roberts of the Victorian National Parks Association said, "Australia has signed the Ramsar treaty to say we would maintain the ecological character of the Coorong as it was in 1985. We are failing this promise."

In his World Wetlands Day message, Environment Minister Garrett blamed the previous government. Of the Snapshot Report, he said, "Page after page highlights the serious ecological and management issues and challenges regarding Australia's Ramsar Convention administration, the failures of the past and suggests a number of areas where implementation of the Ramsar Convention in Australia can be improved."

Garrett said water management and use is a key threat to a number of Ramsar sites and as part of the $12.9 billion, 10 year Water for the Future plan, the Australian government is purchasing water entitlements from willing sellers to return water to the environment.

The minister said funding also has been provided to The Living Murray initiative for increased environmental flows and complementary on-ground works and measures to six icon sites, which include six Ramsar sites along the River Murray.

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