Draft Basin Plan and Environmental water

Image source: University of Sydney

The Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) released the long-awaited Draft Basin Plan on 28 November 2011. The plan will be available for public comment until 16 April 2012. The MDBA also released a Socio-economic analysis of the plan, and a plain English summary, Delivering a healthy working basin, that is intended to put the ideas into a broader context. Criticism began almost as soon as the document went out.

But first, what is the purpose of the plan, and what does it propose?