John Quiggin argues that taxpayers should buy 34 per cent of the water now used by Murray-Darling basin irrigators and add this to the 50 per cent of water that now flows for environmental purposes (''Billions down the drain'', December 9).
However, the present wet spell has demonstrated the resilience of the river system, which is now in the process of a full recovery from the prolonged drought.
The Murray-Darling's natural state is one of alternating floods and trickles and the river often ran totally dry before it became managed to allow modern agriculture.
The plants and animals associated with it have genetically engineered themselves to cope with vast changes in water availability, though nobody thinks we should return the river to this natural state.
Quiggin is correct in arguing it is cheaper to buy water than to undertake engineering measures to increase its flow to the sea.
But the Murray-Darling is a working river, and its basin supplies 40 per cent of the nation's agricultural output. Reducing the quantity of irrigation water must adversely affect the area's agricultural output.
We need to ask why should we unnecessarily marginalise rural communities by diminishing their agricultural income and replacing it with government handouts.
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