Rivers flush to restore ‘natural’ flows
Updated
Natural water flows will be restored in a trial in the Torrens, South Para and Onkaparinga Rivers.
From next month, they will be flushed with several hundred megalitres of water to try to match pre-settlement flows.
Experts say the extra water will help to deepen pools native fish depend on for survival during the drier months in Adelaide.
Professor Chris Daniels, from the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Management Board, says the aim is to find a balance between too much and too little water.
“We don’t want the rivers to flow all year round as if they were a European river because that would be really good for carp and probably be quite destructive for our native fish,” he explained.
“They actually need the drying periods as well, sort of protects them from being attacked from these very large introduced fish.”
He says if the trial is successful other rivers could be included.
“We’ve got plenty of rivers just in the Mount Loftys themselves that have suffered very severely-reduced flows as a result of damming and there’s no reason at all why the results from this trial couldn’t be extended to the Finniss or any of the other rivers that also suffer along these lines,” he said.
Topics:rivers, environment, water-management, environmental-management, environmental-impact, sa, adelaide-5000, gawler-5118, port-noarlunga-5167
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