A good long rain
But the Yarra’s still thirsty
Earlier today I was standing on the banks of the Yarra River out at Warrandyte, hopeful for the sight and sound of rushing flows of water after the weekend’s rain.
But as Yarra Riverkeeper Ian Penrose observed, today the river was only a few inches higher than before the downpour.
Sure, I was standing downstream from the Upper Yarra Reservoir - the dam that supplies so much of Melbourne’s drinking water - so a fair bit of the weekend’s rain has already been captured upstream.
But even I was momentarily guilty of the power of that popular perception that a good dose of rain goes a long way to remedying our water crisis.
Yep, it’s good when it rains, but even a decent downpour cannot make up for decades of over-extraction. We’ve simply got to stop taking so much water out of our rivers. No matter what the weather.
If you’d like to take action to rescue our rivers, this is the year. 2010 will see another Victorian State Government election, and another opportunity for political parties to show us all who has the confidence and willpower to deliver water flows to our rivers.
If you’d like to give a little of your time and skills to help our rivers campaign succeed, please do let me know.
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