Watch Murrumbidgee residents worried about water cuts

Murrumbidgee residents worried about water cuts


ELIZABETH JACKSON: Irrigators along the Murray Darling are reeling after suggestions they could have their water entitlements cut by up to 37 per cent.

Regional communities in the southern end of the Murray Darling Basin are bracing themselves for bad news.

Bronwyn Herbert joins us now from Griffith in south-western New South Wales.

Bronwyn you've been speaking to many farmers there in Griffith. What have they been saying to you about this?

BRONWYN HERBERT: Well I have been speaking with both farmers and the business community over the past couple of days.

And farmers, obviously there's a lot of angst and disappointment particularly with the suggested leaks of there being cuts between 27 to 37 per cent of current water entitlements.

Now small business owners like the newsagent are also reeling because of the flow-on effects to the community and to a town that really does rely on water and agriculture.

Because Griffith is a main city that takes in what's known as the Murrumbidgee irrigation area and this area doesn't have other major industries like a university or a big hospital. So water cuts like it has been suggested would cut very deep in this town.

And irrigators have known for a while that there is pressure on them to reduce their water use. And I spoke with farmer Rob Houghton from the nearby town of Leeton and he acknowledged that for too long there has been too much water taken out.

ROB HOUGHTON: There has been over allocation, that has to be addressed and we are certainly supportive of everyone working together to get a better balance.

But within that mix we need to look at the health of these communities that survive purely because there is water running through the veins of the area.
Coppied by http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2010/s3032888.htm

Watch Water inquiry calls for community impact statements

Water inquiry calls for community impact statements

ELIZABETH JACKSON: The long-awaited guide to the draft report into the management of the Murray Darling Basin will be released later today.

But ahead of that a senate inquiry has handed down its own report on water rights, calling on the Federal Government to make a community impact statement each time it buys water licences in the Murray Darling Basin.

The inquiry has also recommended the Government publish an annual report on infrastructure upgrades across the basin, detailing the costs of the programs, whether they're meeting their timeliness and how much water they're saving.

But one committee member says regardless of the inquiry's findings or this afternoon's report there'll never be a satisfactory management of the basin until there's a federal takeover.

From Canberra, Sabra Lane reports.

SABRA LANE: In August last year the Senate's Environment and Communications Committee started investigating the vexed issue of sustainable water management by the Federal Government.

It morphed into an inquiry about water management and water licences across the entire Murray Darling Basin.

The committee handed down its report late yesterday on the eve of the Murray Darling Basin Authority's draft guide to managing the basin. That report be released later today.

Coppied by http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2010/s3032880.htm

Cities braced in Sindh as rising water threatens to break levees

See the Cities braced in Sindh as rising water threatens to break levees


A Pakistani man walks with a boy as they wade through floodwaters near the village of Basira in Punjab
By Andrew Buncombe, Asia Correspondent
Workers frantically piled sandbags and stones and tried to repair leaking levees as surging water threatened two more cities in the southern province of Sindh yesterday.

Pakistani troops have built around 10 miles of defences to protect Shadad Kot and Qambar, but as water continued to pour into the Indus river last night, the authorities were deeply worried that the lines could be breached.

Already, hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from Shadad Kot and the surrounding area. Almost a month after the floods began devastating Pakistan's north-west, in the far south water levels are still rising as the floods make their way towards the sea.

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The crucial question is whether they can be stopped and diverted before destroying more communities. Spread across a huge swathe of the country, more than six million people have been left homeless.

"It is the last-ditch effort to save the city," Brigadier Khawar Baig, who was overseeing efforts to save Shadad Kot, told the Associated Press. "We are trying to block the water here. If it crosses over, we fear it will go further south and inundate more towns."

Officials told reporters that the eastern side of the city was threatened by water more than 9ft deep. Levees were constantly being repaired with stones and sand-bags, but the authorities were unsure whether they would be able to do enough.

The scale of the flooding that has spread across Pakistan would have challenged the logistical capabilities of any government. But the slow response of the civilian administration headed by President Asif Ali Zardari has continued to anger those who have lost everything.

Yesterday in Punjab province, hundreds of people who fled the rising waters blocked a major road near the town of Kot Adu in demonstration. They complained that they had been camped out nearby for several days without the authorities bringing any emergency supplies.

The constant concern of aid organsiations is the possible spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera. With so many people forced from their homes, emergency shelters, clean water and food is also going to be required for weeks.

A spokesman for the UN's humanitarian organisation suggested millions of people were currently short of food.

Adding to the country's turmoil, more than 36 people were killed yesterday in a series of bomb attacks in the north-west of Pakistan.

In an attack on the outskirts of Peshawar, the leader of an anti-Taliban militia was killed as he passed through a market, while in South Waziristan, a pro-government cleric and more than 20 other people died in a suicide attack on a mosque inside a religious school which also injured 40.
Coppied by http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/cities-braced-in-sindh-as-rising-water-threatens-to-break-levees-2060145.html

Pak accepts Indian aid after US prod

Enjoy Pak accepts Indian aid after US prod

Fresh aid for Pakistan flood victims
NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD: It took a week and a pointed "push" by Washington for Pakistan to finally see sense and accept India's flood-relief assistance.

Reeling under its worst-ever humanitarian crisis, Pakistan responded to an Indian offer of assistance with visible reluctance.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reiterated the Indian offer to his counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday, even offering to increase assistance. The US state department spokesperson on Thursday actually said Washington "expected" Pakistan to accept the assistance, which swung Islamabad into action.

Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi announced in New York on Thursday that Pakistan would accept Indian help.

Welcoming it, MEA spokesperson, Vishnu Prakash said, ""We believe India and Pakistan share a common destiny and also that it was in common interest of both our countries to work together for having cordial and cooperative relations."

Qureshi had said last week that Pakistan was hesitating on the Indian aid offer because of the "sensitivity" of the relationship. In the past couple of days, US senator John Kerry, who was visiting Pakistan had also told president Asif Zardari that Pakistan should accept Indian aid.

Addressing a special UN session on Thursday, Qureshi warned that unless Pakistan received adequate international assistance, hard-won gains in the war against terrorists would be undermined.

Part of the reason for Pakistan not accepting Indian aid thus far was opposition among the hardliners both inside Pakistan's military establishment and among the extremists. A significant section of Pakistan's media, too, opposed the aid.

An editorial in Urdu daily Nawa-i-Waqt said, "The Indian offer of aid is like throwing salt on our wounds." It went on to say that India had built dams to secure itself and was releasing water into Pakistan's rivers as part of its design to devastate Pakistan, using water as a weapon. "Sometimes it uses water to flood Pakistan and sometimes it wants to transform Pakistan into a parched desert."

The Indian high commission in Islamabad is now working out what Pakistan will need and mobilise them quickly. Officials said since India enjoyed a proximity advantage it would be able to move the assistance quickly.

On the Indian side too, while there was some hesitation given that in 2005, Pakistan refused a $25 million offer by India, as well as taking the extreme step of ripping off India labels from the assistance package.

"Pakistan is facing a slow-motion tsunami. Its destructive powers will accumulate and grow with time," Ban Ki-Moon warned the UN on Thursday.

According to weather forecasts, more rain is expected in the coming weeks.

The trouble is, though the UN has appealed for $460m in aid donors have so far given about half that figure. But the UN says they need all of it right now. Richard Holbrooke, US' Af-Pak envoy, has called on China to step up aid. So far, China has given $7.4 million, leaving the top slot for donors to the US, Saudi Arabia and the UK.

The wealthy Gulf and OIC countries, too, have been less than generous.

Holbrooke said, "The water has affected everyone, It's an equal opportunity disaster, and military operations have effectively faded away." An embarrassed China stepped up aid pledges on Friday.


Read more: Pak accepts Indian aid after US prod - Pakistan - World - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/Pakistan-finally-accepts-Indian-flood-aid-offer/articleshow/6369785.cms#ixzz0xE0mkxkb
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