Balancing Consumptive and Environmental Water Use –An Australian Perspective - Water and Agriculture: Sustainability, Markets and Policies - page 183

The Community Advisory Committee advises the Ministerial Council on critical
natural resource management issues. Its role of increasing community participation in the
natural resource management issues within the Basin has risen significantly in recent
years, following a review of the CAC in 2002-2003.
The Murray-Darling Basin Initiative
The Murray-Darling Basin Initiative (Initiative), a partnership between the
governments and the community, was established to give effect to the revised 1992
Agreement. The Initiative is the largest integrated catchment management programme in
the world, covering an area of over one million square kilometres (MDBC, 2005a). It
addresses the delicate balance between the goal of environmental preservation and
conservation with growing and developing Basin communities. To achieve this, it draws
together communities and governments, with the directions and policy for its
implementation provided by the Ministerial Council.
Initially, the Initiative focused on promoting the principles of integrated catchment
management (ICM) and the development of joint community and government structures
which have remained key mechanisms for achieving sustainable use of the Basin's
natural resources (MDBC, 2004). The Integrated Catchment Management Policy
Statement 2001-2010 was made by the community, industry and governments to
demonstrate the commitment towards ecological sustainable development of the Basin.
The statement was based on setting targets for catchment health and building capabilities
of the parties in order to achieve them. In recognition of the substantial learning curves
and behavioural changes required, the timeframe was set to 10 years.
Actions under the Murray-Darling Basin Initiative
A large variety of actions and projects have been undertaken under the Initiative that
addresses Basin-wide or regional issues. Table 1 provides a snapshot of activities that
have taken place.
Targeting salinity through a salinity strategy
The guiding force for co-operation between community and governmental bodies in
controlling salinity in the Murray-Darling Basin is the Basin Salinity Management
Strategy 2005-2015 (Salinity Strategy). It establishes targets for the river salinity of each
major tributary valley and the Murray-Darling system itself, which reflect the shared
responsibility for action, both between valley communities and between the states.
A key feature of the fifteen-year Salinity Strategy is the adoption by the Ministerial
Council of end-of-valley salinity targets for each tributary catchment and a Basin target at
Morgan in South Australia. The Basin target is to maintain the salinity at Morgan at less
than 800 electro-conductivity units for 95 per cent of the time (MDBC, 2005c). These
targets are a way of measuring the progress towards achieving the Salinity Strategy's key
objectives of:
Maintaining the water quality of the shared water resources of the Murray and Darling
Rivers;
Controlling the rise in salt loads in all tributary rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin;