The Murry River in Australia could be set for another year of below-average rainfall, further adding to long-standing drought problems that have left the river with its lowest recorded water levels.
An April report from the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) said that inflows between January and March has been the lowest in 117 years, with the outlook for the next three months looking bleak.
Six years of severe drought have taken their toll on the river, with levels now so low that Adelaide could run out of water in the next two years, according to The Guardian.
And farmers dependent on water in the Murry-Darling basin are bracing themselves for further limitations on the amount of water that can be extracted from the river.
'Total inflows for the first three months of this year were 140gl, slightly lower than the previous historic minimum of 150gl in January-March 2007,' said MDBA CEO Rob Freeman. 'Inflows for the 2008/09 water year are currently tracking as the sixth driest on record.'
Total water storage across the basin remains low at 18 per cent, and this low level, coupled with low flows and high temperatures, has contributed to an outbreak of blue-green algae during the first quarter of the year.
