The following article was a Humanities assignment done by Iya (G7).

The Murray-Darling River is a river in Australia. The Drainage Basin is mostly in New South Wales and some in Queensland, Victoria and South Australia. This river is where Australians get most of their water. The river is a storage and a usage to all citizens. Farmers and irrigators have easy access to use the water in the river. They use the water to water their crops such as cotton because around the Murray-Darling basin, there are lots of cotton farms (ABC News).

The Murray-Darling River is definitely a River Of Life because it gives us resources and lots of energy. It is a freshwater source helps us grow crops. The river could give us electricity for example hydroelectricity! This is a power run by water, therefore, people who live there will get more electricity. This river also gives people food because of the fish living in the basin.

Perspectives

The Australian Government are building dams on the Murray-Darling River. This is pleasant because it could prevent floods especially in Australia, it rains a lot during May–September. A dam in Australia called Hume Dam is a dam for flood management and power, which is hydropower (Murray-Darling Basin Authority). Hydropower produces electricity. Therefore people around the dam will get more electricity and the more dams the more electricity the citizens would get. So, building a dam would be good but it could benefit and have consequences to many people.

Since the Australian Government are building dams, it could affect people and their lives such as fishermen. The fishermen would be pessimistic about the building of the dam because they won’t be able to fish. This is especially important for fishermen who fish for a living. Dams are supposed to be clean and healthy, and so, the government will get rid of animals or unclean and living creatures. If this really does happen, the fishermen will need to move away and fish someplace else because they won’t have the ability to fish (Australian Government).

The Australian Government will do anything to help the citizens. For example, building a dam would get more electricity. The government would be optimistic because they would be more than happy to make their country better. Building dams in the Murray-Darling River would be beneficial because it will produce energy which is hydro-power. The dams will be useful for the environment as well because the Murray-Darling River Basin is where all the water in Australia is stored and dams so people could get an easy access to the water. The dams will help prevent the floods in Australia. Overall, building dams is a really good idea especially in the Murray-Darling basin because it’s bigger than New Zealand which means it would have lots of water.

Featured image from: http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/news/national/murray-darling-basin-plan-downwater-offsets-achieved/news-story/9b45462356c26480b9578f74d892f200?nk=51f52fbbe35c45b5ef72049a4d91d077-1509783550