Introduction << BACK TO CONTENTS It’s raining, it’s pouring and nature is filling rivers and wetlands during a plentiful wet season. So should we still put water into the environment when nature is delivering it on tap? In drought years, it’s easy to understand the need to deliberately release water into rivers and wetlands for animals, plants and the environment: parched wetlands, drying river beds and stagnant pools are visibly in need of water. But in wet years, it’s not as easy to understand the need for water for the environment: If the river already has water in it, why do we need to send down more? Why do we need water for the environment when it rains? The artificial drought Rain or shine, many of Victoria’s rivers, floodplains and wetlands constantly experience an artificial drought: Victoria’s waterways have continued to be modified as the population has grown, to provide water for food production towns and industry. The water in rivers is now pooled up in water storages and its flow controlled by weirs and other mechanisms. In some rivers, up to half of the water that would have naturally flowed in them is removed each year for farms, homes and businesses. Even in a wet year, most rivers are still in drought compared to their natural condition. The program to deliver water for the environment was established to help ease some of the impacts of this high level of water extraction. Rivers rely on a pattern on flow Rivers are meant to have a seasonal pattern. The volume, timing, speed, duration, frequency, quality and range of river flows are all essential for the ecosystem. Each part of a river’s flow pattern has its own job to do, whether it’s a high flow in spring to prompt fish to move and breed or an overbank flow to give a drink to river red gum and black box forests. Most of the water we usually see travelling down a river is not water for the environment but water released from a water storage for farms, homes and industry. In fact, water specifically managed to help plants and animals makes up less than a quarter of the water released into Victoria’s rivers. Water for the environment breathes life back into our river systems, creating highs and lows where and when they are naturally needed. We use environmental flows to make sure the right amount of water is in the right place at the right time to trigger feeding, breeding, fledging or migration for fish, birds, turtles and other animals, as well as to water trees and other vegetation and refresh the floodplain. Even if it is a wet year, water for the environment might be required to help mimic some of the natural seasonal flow patterns the river landscape and its wildlife need. Even in a wet year, most rivers are still in drought compared to their natural condition. 9 | Victorian Environmental Water Holder
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