WATER WISE WONDERLAND:

I SHARE WITH YOU DEAR READER THE REMNENTS OF WHAT USED TO BE.

JEWELL IN THE CROWN OF THE SMORGASBORD OF WHAT WE USED TO SEE.

Last remaining pair of the "Giant Tin Feathered Water Bird"

Leeton is a water town

Built around water on the Murrumbidgee water flow.

Drive around this MIA Riverina town, you will see signs of water everywhere.

Signs of mankinds achievements made from natures bountiful store of gifts.

Achievements with wealth with benefits to businesses and farms engaged in.

· Walnuts.

· Orchards.

· Grapes.

· Rice.

· Cotton.

· Fish Farming.

Just add water from extensive natures pool.

All have contributed to the growth of the community.

However not all things can be measured in money alone.

Thinking we are supreme water masters.

As we interupt the natural water flow.

Quiet belief we know all there is to know.

Blindly not seeing greed, impending disasters.

A SPOTLIGHT ON THE LOCAL.

"FIVEBOUGH WETLANDS"

Witness a perfect non-consumptive example of sustainable water use with multiple benefits.

A water business that produces life where the whole local community is a winner.

With a Ramsar interconnection with the world.

Ramsar:

• Convention on Wetlands is the intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.

• Broad aims to halt worldwide loss of wetlands to conserve those that remain.

• Governance, Legislation, and Protection of Intermittent Rivers and Ephemeral Streams.

• Interrelated, Integrated subsystems linked by physical and biological interactions.

A Spot of Fishing

Wetlands:

Recipients include

· Humans

· Birds and insects.

· Importantly migratory birds.

Water allowed to return to its original source Nature .

Topped up with treated waste water, quite safe

Not making any more, just squandering, as we as a nation expect fresh water at our door.

Blatantly releasing waste water downstream in rivers or into the ocean for others to sort

As density grows with increasing population, stretching capacity to supply basic water needs.

Yet from the top-down recycling of water, is “Poo- Pooed” as a solution to our future solutions.

" Never"

Never has our water tis such a finite resourse.

Never will our grand kids see what used to be.

Until whole community open their eyes and see.

Never will the rivers health be or run the same.

Until we change our mindset and use our brain.

Never will we see the changes until we make it so.

I pray we have the courage to make our rivers flow.

Cause if we miss our chances we might not get another go !!!

NOW 25YRS ON.

Petty politics remain the rule of the same old tone.

We have lost big picture with lessons clearly shown.

All the while the Murray Darling debate continues to roll.

And the health of the river focus continues to take its toll.

The “Environment” now placed in a cosy side spot, not in the light.

In direct competition to “Community” needs, way out to the right.

Really don’t mean to be rude but you don’t have a clue.

The Environment IS Community and it is time to give its due.

There is more community in our habitat, environment’s other name.

To hand this finite resource to the selected few is really quite insane.

Water imbalance it remains, and it will not go away.

Until we put in our planning, what environment has to say.

It is telling us that the rivers, some have stopped to flow.

And storage dams that fill from them are very very low.

When dams are replenished with expectations very high.

More than half of it evaporates straight up to the sky.

So back to where they started and very clearly shows.

Dead rivers and empty dams ultimately hold no dough.

We are all water users with water needs. Seriously !!!