Communities shudder at the thought of additional buybacks
Editor,
We have long been told about the need to walk 10,000 steps a day for better health and a longer life. That was the scientific ‘magic number’.
But now, university studies tell us that only 4,000 steps are needed. So, how did we originally determine that this number should be 10,000?
It may surprise many to learn it was part of a Japanese marketing campaign to promote a pedometer. It was about money, not health.
More than 15 years ago we were told by scientists that more water was required to protect the health of the Murray-Darling Basin, in particular its lower reaches in South Australia.
After carrying out studies and trying to navigate the politics, scientists determined the water recovery target should be 2,750 gigalitres … and that’s a massive amount of water. Unfortunately the South Australian Government saw an opportunity to get lots of cheap water not just for the environment, but also for industry, housing developments, recreation and domestic use.
So it demanded an additional 450GL and would not sign up to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan until this was added, though there was eventually a caveat that it must be recovered without social and economic damage to upstream communities.
Fast forward to 2023 and we have already seen significant damage to rural communities from water buybacks to achieve much of the original 2,750GL. These communities shudder at the thought of additional buybacks to achieve the 450GL, which Water Minister Tanya Plibersek says is inevitable, and what it will do to jobs and prosperity.
In so many ways, it is like the 10,000 steps we were asked to take. The number 10,000 originated decades ago from a marketing campaign; the additional 450GL from a political campaign. Both were not scientific numbers; they were derived to suit a selfish purpose.
So I encourage everyone to walk your 4,000 steps, and also to encourage your local politician to support moves to abandon the Basin Plan’s additional 450GL.
In that way you can still live longer, while at the same time advocating that governments protect the Murray-Darling environment without destroying communities that live within it.
Yours faithfully,
Meredith Tasker
Deniliquin, NSW
