The Murray-Darling Basin scandal: economists have seen it coming for decades

Nations behave wisely, Israeli foreign minister Abba Eban observed five decades ago, “once they have exhausted all other alternatives”. 

The failure of infrastructure subsidies
is no surprise to economists
that have studied the problems
of the Murray-Darling Basin for decades.

One can only hope that proves the case with water policy in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin, the nation’s largest river system and agricultural heartland.

The ABC’s Four Corners program Cash Splash, aired last night, illustrates how thoroughly we are exhausting the options that don’t work to keep rivers being sucked dry by irrigators. Billions of dollars have been spent on infrastructure schemes that have failed to deliver any measurable improvement in water flows or the state of the environment. 

Read the story from The Conversation by John Quiggan - “The Murray-Darling Basin scandal: economists have seen it coming for decades.”