up for grabs

This week ABC Radio National listeners controlled the fate of one billion litres (1000 Megalitres) of water. That equates to 5 buckets of water for every Australian, with a value on the open market of close to $100,000.

The water is owned by the NSW State Government and the Murray Wetlands Working Group (MWWG), which normally manages the water, will advise listeners on the various options as to how to use the water to highlight the dilemmas facing our water authorities.

This project is the latest part of the “Water Challenge”, a joint venture between ABC Radio National’s Bush Telegraph program and ABC Online that has been running on the ABC since 24th September. Listeners have been asked to log on to http://abc.net.au/water to register their domestic water consumption with the overall aim of educating Australians about how they use water.

In this latest development, listeners have to earn the right to be handed the responsibility to manage this water. The options that listeners will debate and then eventually vote on are:

1. Release the water down the Murray River in autumn, winter or spring to provide some variability to flow and river level and to assist in keeping the Murray mouth open.

2. Add the water to the Barmah-Millewa Forest environmental allocation for release at an appropriate time.

3 Use the water to flood a small private wetland in the Murray Valley in NSW.

4 Trade the water on the open water market as a temporary transfer, with the proceeds to be managed by the MWWG for wetland rehabilitation works in the Murray Valley.

Discussion on each option will continue each Wednesday for the next four weeks. Then voting begins on Wednesday 26th November, closing on Wednesday 10th December.

ABC Radio National’s Bush Telegraph program will announce the winning option on Wednesday, 19th December at 11am.