Justin Tutty
& Jon Lamb, Darwin

Environmentalists rallied June 28 to demand a moratorium on water extraction licenses in the Northern Territory's Daly River Basin. The protest was held before a meeting of the Daly Community Reference Group.

The CRG was established last November in response to community outrage over the NT government's plans to encourage agricultural development based on widespread land clearing and extensive harvesting of water from the Daly River and surrounding aquifers.

According to Environment Centre of the Northern Territory spokesperson Henry Boer, “Over 30 billion litres of new irrigation water licences for the Daly River are awaiting approval by the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Environment. This is an increase of over 50% on current levels of licensed water use in the catchment.”

Opponents of these measures are calling for the suspension of new water licences for large-scale irrigation until the Daly River Water Allocation Plan has been completed.

Previous meetings of the CRG, held around the Daly region, have heard government department representatives reveal plans for clearing at least 100,000 hectares of woodland and monsoon rainforest for pastoralism and agriculture. Earlier this year, the NT government granted permits to clear 8000 hectares in the river catchment.

Environmentalists have roundly criticised the government's “sustainability framework”, which has been promoted to manage the environmental impacts of the planned land clearing. Opponents of the plan warn that methods proposed for managing water allocation and ensuring habitat retention have insufficient scientific basis.

From Green Left Weekly, July 7, 2004.
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