The rainfall over the week across southern Australian was welcomed by farmers but has little impact on the Murray River Catchment System. The Australian article “Farmers happy, but more rain needed” that the Hume Dam raised from 170 giga litres to 180 with the latest falls of rain but that it is still 6% off the capacity.Commission chief executive Wendy Craik outlined the insufficiency of water in catchments regardless of the rainfall.
“… This has been very welcomed but it really is mostly just wetting up the catchments,” she said.NSW Premier Morris Iemma exclaimed that the rainfall was a “welcomed relief” but that the “drenching rain in many parts of the state but it’s still not enough.”‘
The Australian’ newspaper further covered the downfall over the week and such little rain over the weekend. Wendy Craik the Murray Darling Commission stated last week that the
“…falls reduced surface evaporation, but it was too early to tell whether the rain generated a run-off to the dams and catchments.”
The issue of the drought seems almost to have become a back seat issue to climate change recently especially due to reports released such as the Intergovernmental Panel For Climate Change report. This time last year environmental articles seemed t be more focused on the issue of the drought and the desalination scheme. My blog is an example of how much coverage Climate Change and Global Warming has dominated the Australian media.
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