What is the Murray-Darling Basin Plan?
The Murray-Darling Basin Plan is a national agreement adopted in 2012 to manage water in Australia's largest river system. It sets limits on water use to protect rivers, wetlands and farming.
The Murray-Darling Basin covers about one million square kilometres across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and the ACT. It supports a large share of Australia's irrigated agriculture.
During the Millennium Drought, from the late 1990s to 2009, rivers dried and wetlands such as the Coorong suffered. This led to the Water Act 2007 and the Basin Plan.
Water for the environment
The plan aimed to return water to the environment by buying water entitlements from farmers and funding more efficient irrigation. The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder manages this water.
The plan has been controversial, with debates between farmers, communities and scientists.
Deadlines and targets have been revised over time.
The Basin's rivers include the Murray, the Darling, the Murrumbidgee, the Goulburn and the Lachlan, and they feed internationally important wetlands such as the Macquarie Marshes and the Coorong. Water recovered under the plan has been used to flood red gum forests and wetlands, helping birds breed and fish move. Farmers, towns and environmental groups continue to debate how much water should be returned to rivers and how it should be recovered, especially in dry years when every litre counts.
Did You Know?
The Murray-Darling Basin Authority oversees the plan.