CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The government said Monday it will pour millions of dollars into reviving Australia’s longest river and one of its major tributaries.
Less water would be diverted by farmers and other users from the Murray and its tributary, the Snowy River, under a deal struck between the federal government and state governments of Victoria and New South Wales.
The government plans to spend up to 75 million Australian dollars ($43 million) to subsidize the installation of more efficient irrigation systems for farmers and to replace open irrigation channels with closed pipes to reduce the amount of water lost to evaporation. “This is a new lease of life for the rivers,” Federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane said in a statement.
The deal aims to reduce the amount of water diverted from Snowy River by 294 billion liters (77.67 billion gallons) and cut the amount diverted from the Murray by 70 billion liters (18.49 billion gallons) over the next decade.
