PA/24/14 31 July 2014
THE GANGA AND THE MURRAY DARLING - COMMON LESSONS FROM TWO RIVER BASINS
The Australian High Commission has hosted an expert panel discussion on experiences in river basin planning from India’s Ganga River Basin and Australia’s Murray-Darling River Basin.
The distinguished panel included Dr Peter Wallbrink from Australia’s national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO); Mr Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Mission Director for India’s National Mission Clean Ganga; Prof Vinod Tare, IIT Kanpur; and Dr Bill Young, the World Bank.
Australia’s High Commissioner to India Patrick Suckling said the panel provided a valuable opportunity for Australian experts to share water experiences and challenges with their Indian counterparts, and discuss how lessons from Australia’s water reforms in the Murray-Darling River Basin could apply to the Ganga rejuvenation project.
“Australia and India have a strong and growing partnership in water management, bolstered by a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2009 and the India-Australia Water Science and Technology Partnership launched by our Prime Ministers in 2012,” Mr Suckling said.
“Water management is a natural area of collaboration between our countries. Australia is the driest inhabited continent on earth, and we’ve had to learn to carefully manage our scarce and precious water resource. We see significant similarities in terms of what India is trying to achieve. We want to share our hard-learnt experience in the Murray-Darling Basin with India to support the Ganga rejuvenation project,” he said.
“Australia and India also have similar Centre and State government structures in the water sector, which makes our experience particularly relevant.”
The panel was attended by a range of water experts based in India from government, research institutions, industry and international institutions.