"terryc" wrote in message
...
0tterbot wrote:
the irrigators merely should be going first.

That could use a lot of fine tuning. The reason irrigation areas were set
up in the first place was that not enough food could be grown from
rainfall.

i'm not sure about that. it's more likely to have been that in those
locations, there was a resource to exploit & so they did. it has meant that
no thought went into doing things alternatively.

i should say, i don't have a problem with irrigation per se. it's a smart
way to do more with less. what i object to is HOW it is done - for decades,
it was done so heartbreakingly inefficiently that most of the water went
anywhere but on the crop (those massive boom sprinklers that send out a fine
mist - which apparently one is only allowed to use at midday in summer
during a high wind ;-). by irrigating inefficiently, then naturally they are
going to want to use great quantities of water that could & should stay in
the river; so over-allocation has happened, to no net benefit in the end.

Frankly, it isn't the irrigators that are the problems, but the pocket
lining pollies, who should loose their pension over their creation of this
catasstrophe.

well, no. i'd suggest the irrigators are the problem :-) they've just been
abetted by pollies selling water rights that simply shouldn't exist.

A good start would be to put all irrigators on the same water supply
levels, then factor down unessential irrigators (wine, export crops,
massive mono cultres) as the need arises to ensure the rivers have a
normal flow.

which of those people are going to accept they are unessential? i personally
would suggest that wine is unessential entirely, but then, i don't normally
drink wine (although i bunged one on last night, so that's not completely
true g ) if wine is unessential, then surely canola is as well! (olive oil
being tastier, nutritious, & able to be grown dry). how do we decide?! where
would it end?

but your basic idea is a good one. i think what needs to happen is for the
less-essential people to be able to make that decision for themselves. with
time, that does seem to happen. they just need a hurry-up, but hurry-ups
make them angry & defensive. sigh.
kylie