La Niña's unfulfilled promise of rain has hit the Murray-Darling River Basin in southeastern Australia especially hard. The area, roughly the size of France and Spain combined, is Australia's food bowl, with about 41 percent of the country's agricultural activities taking place there.
Tens of thousands of farms in three Australian states depend on the River Murray, which no longer carries enough water to flow to the ocean. By the end of the most recent winter, river flows and reservoir levels in some parts of the country were at all-time lows.
Even if La Niña does persist and bring heavy rainfalls, it will take several seasons for the catchments to fill up again.
Without water, some of the local farms have had at least two seasons of crop failure. Farm debt was $412,000 Australian, up from $150,000 in 1990, according to the National Australia Bank.
The South Australia Farm Federation said recently that crop failures could force 20 percent of the state's farmers off the land in the next year.
Full article.
God I hate droughts. My poor country.
Labels: General
Water is life. I never realized how much, until we moved from a state with plenty of rain and humidity to one that was semi-arid and experiencing drought. It made me realize how vital water really is.
TurtleHeart said...
10 November 2007 7:10 PM
I've always known how much water is life, Living in Australia it's sort of something we tend to just know, from a very young age. But, seriously, all the ground is starting to crack :|
Stephanie said...
11 November 2007 5:26 AM