The Murray Darling Basin is Australia's breadbasket. A salinity audit last year predicted that many of the basin s rivers and streams would have salinity levels too high for drinking or agriculture in 20 to 50 years. There is not enough water in some of our major river systems to meet the combined demands of agriculture, human consumption and environmental flows, said Farley. In addition, soil fertility continues to fall and biodiversity continues to be lost. After 10 years and a huge investment of public and private funds, Australia has only started to crawl down the road to sustainable resource use, said Farley.
Soil salinity continues to be a crucial water issue in Australia.
Some lessons have been learned, Farley allows. More need to be heeded. Environmental capital, for example, needs to be factored into economic policy. There needs to be greater cooperation between states and commonwealth, says Farley. Farley also suggested that agriculture and environment departments need to work better together to provide more integrated approaches to programs.