Water & Climate Court Case - Murray-Darling Basin
Published at : October 09, 2021
Chris Gambian, Chief Executive of the Nature Conservation Council of NSW & Dr Emma Carmody, Environmental Defenders Office, explain why they have commenced a world-first legal action to protect rivers and wetlands.
The case being brought in the NSW Land & Environment Court claims that future climate change must be taken into account when decisions about water sharing plans are being made.
Scientific modelling suggests that the amount of rain and runoff in the Murray-Darling Basin will likely reduce, patterns of rainfall will change and droughts are likely to be more severe.
The last severe drought, which followed so soon after the Millennium Drought, saw record low inflows into many dams.
Making decisions on water without properly taking future climate change into account risks allocating too much water to irrigation, not enough flows to sustain the environment and downstream communities, and emptying dams too quickly for adequate drought reserves.
If successful, it will mean climate change will need to be take into account when drafting and setting of catchment-wide extraction limits and environmental flow rules.
This is the first time in the world that a catchment-wide water sharing instrument has been challenged on the grounds that fails to address the impacts of current and future climate change on environmental health and water sharing within the relevant catchment, as well as on surrounding floodplains and downstream rivers, wetlands and communities.
his could mean more water for fragile ecosystems across the Murray-Darling Basin and in turn healthier river systems and greater water security for downstream communities.
Our children and future generations deserve to enjoy and benefit from a healthy, functioning river system.
The case claims that the NSW Minister for Water breached the Water Management Act 2000 by failing to take climate change impacts into account in relation to the Border Rivers Water Sharing Plan. We further claim that the Minister for the Environment breached the Act by giving his concurrence to that plan.
The Nature Conservation Council is represented by the Environmental Defenders Office and Brett Walker SC.
Our rivers and the ecosystems they support are in crisis. We are on the frontline of climate change impacts, and we say the government has an absolute duty to ensure the allocation of water ensures the health of the environment
If keeping the river alive as our first priority isn’t met, it doesn’t really matter what our second priority is.
This is the first time in the world that a catchment-wide water sharing instrument has been challenged on the grounds that fails to address the impacts of current and future climate change on environmental health and water sharing within the relevant catchment, as well as on surrounding floodplains and downstream rivers, wetlands and communities.
Climate change is not some abstract phenomenon that may occur in the future. It is happening now, and our river communities in NSW are feeling the brunt of it every day. Just 18 months ago numerous NSW towns were entirely dependent of bore water or water that had to be trucked in. Other towns came perilously close to running out of water.
Whole parts of rivers completely dried up. The Menindee Lakes were dry, the Macquarie Marshes were on the brink of dying.
This is a challenge for public administrators right now. We believe the NSW Government failed in their duty to meet that challenge.
Climate models used to predict climate change and its impacts are sufficiently robust and we claim they must be taken into account in determining the allocation of water.
Failing to take climate change into account means too much water is allocated to extraction, not enough water is left in dams for dry times, and too little water is provided for nature, including in downstream catchments such as the Barwon-Darling/Baaka River.
We wish this action was not necessary. But a failure to call our public officials to account would be an abrogation of what we see as our own duty: to nature, to healthy rivers and wetlands, and to the people of NSW now and for generations to come.
Find out more: https://www.nature.org.au/water_court_case
The case being brought in the NSW Land & Environment Court claims that future climate change must be taken into account when decisions about water sharing plans are being made.
Scientific modelling suggests that the amount of rain and runoff in the Murray-Darling Basin will likely reduce, patterns of rainfall will change and droughts are likely to be more severe.
The last severe drought, which followed so soon after the Millennium Drought, saw record low inflows into many dams.
Making decisions on water without properly taking future climate change into account risks allocating too much water to irrigation, not enough flows to sustain the environment and downstream communities, and emptying dams too quickly for adequate drought reserves.
If successful, it will mean climate change will need to be take into account when drafting and setting of catchment-wide extraction limits and environmental flow rules.
This is the first time in the world that a catchment-wide water sharing instrument has been challenged on the grounds that fails to address the impacts of current and future climate change on environmental health and water sharing within the relevant catchment, as well as on surrounding floodplains and downstream rivers, wetlands and communities.
his could mean more water for fragile ecosystems across the Murray-Darling Basin and in turn healthier river systems and greater water security for downstream communities.
Our children and future generations deserve to enjoy and benefit from a healthy, functioning river system.
The case claims that the NSW Minister for Water breached the Water Management Act 2000 by failing to take climate change impacts into account in relation to the Border Rivers Water Sharing Plan. We further claim that the Minister for the Environment breached the Act by giving his concurrence to that plan.
The Nature Conservation Council is represented by the Environmental Defenders Office and Brett Walker SC.
Our rivers and the ecosystems they support are in crisis. We are on the frontline of climate change impacts, and we say the government has an absolute duty to ensure the allocation of water ensures the health of the environment
If keeping the river alive as our first priority isn’t met, it doesn’t really matter what our second priority is.
This is the first time in the world that a catchment-wide water sharing instrument has been challenged on the grounds that fails to address the impacts of current and future climate change on environmental health and water sharing within the relevant catchment, as well as on surrounding floodplains and downstream rivers, wetlands and communities.
Climate change is not some abstract phenomenon that may occur in the future. It is happening now, and our river communities in NSW are feeling the brunt of it every day. Just 18 months ago numerous NSW towns were entirely dependent of bore water or water that had to be trucked in. Other towns came perilously close to running out of water.
Whole parts of rivers completely dried up. The Menindee Lakes were dry, the Macquarie Marshes were on the brink of dying.
This is a challenge for public administrators right now. We believe the NSW Government failed in their duty to meet that challenge.
Climate models used to predict climate change and its impacts are sufficiently robust and we claim they must be taken into account in determining the allocation of water.
Failing to take climate change into account means too much water is allocated to extraction, not enough water is left in dams for dry times, and too little water is provided for nature, including in downstream catchments such as the Barwon-Darling/Baaka River.
We wish this action was not necessary. But a failure to call our public officials to account would be an abrogation of what we see as our own duty: to nature, to healthy rivers and wetlands, and to the people of NSW now and for generations to come.
Find out more: https://www.nature.org.au/water_court_case
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