Protect the Territory's iconic Springs

People have been giving a simple message up and down the Roper: no more water out.

But the Lawler government has just announced another shocking plan to allow thirsty industries to take billions of litres of water from the Territory’s rivers – this time from the underground aquifer system that sustains the Roper River and iconic springs of Elsey National Park, Rainbow and Bitter Springs.

In the Mataranka and Larrimah areas, the government are proposing to allocate billions of litres of additional water from an already stressed system.

People are already seeing the effects of water extraction at Mataranka and across the Territory. The substantial increase proposed by the government could impact water supplies to communities including Ngukurr, and our wetlands, billabongs and cultural places. In a worst case scenario, the aquifer could run in the opposite direction, effectively stopping dry season flows to the Roper River.

But there’s still time to avoid the fate of the Murray Darling Basin for our rivers. By listening to water scientists and communities, the government can protect our rivers by stopping any additional water extraction from the Roper River catchment.

Will you email the Minister for the Environment and Parks to stop these plans being finalised?

Dear Minister, Stand with us to protect Bitter Springs I am very concerned about the future of the Territory’s rivers. Over the past six months, the government has allocated billions of additional litres of water to the cotton and fracking industries and has proposed to allocate even more water under the draft Mataranka Tindall Water Allocation Plan. The Plan doubles the water currently licensed in the plan area, allocates six times the water currently used in the plan area and quadruples the licensed amount in Larrimah. Combined with the recently finalised Georgina Wiso Water Allocation Plan and Surface Water Take policy, it increases extraction in the Roper River catchment from around 25 billion litres to over 280 billion litres every year. People have been giving a simple message up and down the Roper: no more water out. We’re already seeing the effects of water extraction at Mataranka and across the Territory. But the Plan could have dire consequences for the places we love. Increased extraction could also impact water supplies at Ngukurr and cause wetlands, billabongs and cultural places to dry up earlier, impacting wildlife and cultural activities. It could increase fire risk and impact dry season flows to the Roper River. We need our government to listen to communities and scientists and prioritise the protection of our rivers, floodplains and aquifers.
Territorians want to see communities listened to, and new, strengthened protections for our river systems. We must avoid the fate of the Murray Darling Basin in the Northern Territory, and we want to see decision makers acting to avoid this.
I urge you to stand with the community and refuse to release the current plan to ensure no more water is taken out of the Roper River catchment.