Australia's Drought Declared Worst In 1,000 Years At Summit Meeting

[hatrack]

But John Howard, he's "skeptical" about this. :eyes:

The drought has been declared the worst in a thousand years, but a crisis summit on the Murray-Darling Basin delivered little help for the parched river system. Labor premiers have jumped on the latest grim drought assessment by a government agency as evidence of "uncharted territory" caused by climate change. But Prime Minister John Howard - already sceptical about "extreme" predictions of the effects of global warming - publicly questioned a top water bureaucrat's statement that the big dry was a one in 1,000 year event.

Murray-Darling Basin Commission (MDBC) official David Dreverman delivered the bleak news to an emergency summit called by Mr Howard with the four states which share the river system - NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland.

Despite Mr Howard questioning the assessment, Mr Dreverman - the Commission's head of River Murray Water - said the figures backed up his claim, showing a "quantum leap" in conditions. Inflows to the river this year - already the lowest on record - were 54 per cent below the previous minimum, Mr Dreverman said. "It's more typical of a one in a thousand year (drought), or possibly even drier, than it is of a one in a hundred year event," he told AAP.

"I made the comment trying to get the message that what we're going through is not just the driest we've ever had, this year - in the five months to the end of October - it's the driest we've ever had by about 54 per cent." He said the dry spell was so bad that the three dams which underpin the basin's southern farmlands - already predicted to run dry in May - could dry up even sooner.

EDIT

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Drought-declared-worst-in-millennium/2006/11/07/1162661652470.html

[kestrel91316]

1. I think the Aussies need to get busy investing in

desalination plants. 'Cause they are going to need to use the water that surrounds them. Ain't gonna be no water falling on them for the forseeable future.

River?? What's a "river"?