Authorities on New South Wales (NSW) have confirmed the death of a million fish in the local river due to “an ecological catastrophe”. the experts said the lakes being drained make such disasters more likely, Sky News reports.
In Australia, the huge extraction of water for big irrigators is choking the life out of the system downriver, that caused the death of a million fish. It is an ecological catastrophe on an international scale, the experts explained.” Blue-green algae infested dregs for river ecosystem, said the state’s independent MP, Jeremy Buckingham, who arrived the place of incident.
In New South Wales, there were three other mass fish deaths around the Christmas period, and Niall Blair, NSW’s fisheries and regional water minister, was accused of fish mass deaths on drought. He answered that “this is the sort of thing we do see during drought”, adding that “We’re looking at the operating rules around the Menindee Lakes and what we can do.”
Mr Blair was also blamed for ignoring locals after he sped past a group waiting for him on a boat with a police escort, but said he met others. The locals also say that corruption and greed of officials are the reasons of mass fish death in NSW.
One million fish die in Australian river is a man-made disaster
According to the ecological experts who are used to operate in NSW, this is nothing to do with drought, this is a man-made disaster.
“This is the result of draining the Menindee Lakes twice in four years, killing the system,” Mr McBride concluded.
He added that 250,000 livestock and millions of native animals are at risk from the increasingly toxic river water.
Upriver the basin is about 20% full but in the lower Darling River levels are as low as 5%, a spokeswoman for the Murray Darling Basin Authority said.
