Thursday January 25, 2007

Australian leader announces sweeping water reforms amid record drought

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - Prime Minister John Howard on Thursday announced a multibillion dollar package of water reforms aimed at easing Australia's five-year drought, a move his critics claim is a ploy to establish his environmental credentials ahead of federal elections later this year.

Already the world's driest inhabited continent, Australia's agricultural sector has been crippled in recent months by the worst drought in the nation's 106-year history. Most Australian cities are facing tight water restrictions, as reservoir levels continue to hit record lows.

Under the 10 billion Australian dollar (US$7.8 billion; euro6 billion) plan, the federal government will seize regulatory control over the Murray-Darling river system, Australia's largest waterway, from the four states that border the rivers.

The plan also includes a massive overhaul of Australia's irrigation infrastructure, earmarking nearly A$6 billion (US$4.7 billion; euro3.61 billion) for the modernization of pipes and channels along the Murray-Darling aimed at saving billions of liters (gallons) of water each year.

"The current trajectory of water use and management in Australia is not sustainable,'' Howard told the National Press Club in Canberra. "In a protracted drought, and with the prospect of long-term climate change, we need radical and permanent change.''

But Australia's opposition Labor party leader on Thursday accused Howard of failing to use available resources to address the water crisis, and exploiting the issue ahead of elections later this year.

"We've had now for nearly three years a A$2 billion (US$1.6 billion; euro1.2 billion) Australian Water Fund. Seventy five percent of that has not been spent by Mr. Howard,'' Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. " "Now six months before an election, we have the announcement of another ... fund.''

The Murray-Darling system provides irrigation for 40 percent of Australia's farm produce and drinking water for the South Australia state capital Adelaide. But lower-than-average rainfall and overuse of the rivers have reduced water flows to a trickle in some areas.

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, a government commodities research body, has predicted grain earnings will fall by 35 percent during the fiscal year ending June 30, and that Australia's will produce only 35 percent of its normal wheat crop due to a shortage of winter rains in 2006. - AP

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