Mass fish kill: What next for the Darling River community | Australian Story

In January 2019 Kate McBride's video of her father pulling dead Murray cod from the Darling River shocked Australia.

Now she's intent on exposing locals' fears about their water and its possible health impacts.

Some in the community are worried about the safety of the water and other factors including skin irritations and a possible threat of motor neurone disease.

According to WaterNSW, in the last six months less water has flowed into the lower Darling catchment than at any time in its recorded history.

The Menindee Lakes system is now officially holding just 1.1 per cent of its capacity. So what next for those who rely on the Murray-Darling Basin for their livelihoods?

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[tinatheo]

As an ex Menindee local and knowing the importance of the Darling not only for Menindee, and the impact it has has to the community, but also down stream to the food bowl of Mildura, all I can say …. Keep fighting you amazing girl !!

[weobeyjesus]

If you turn the cotton farmers into hemp farmers it would reduce the need for irrigation massively. Hemp needs very little irrigation. Bottom line: Large scale cotton farming is not sustainable in Australia.

[jamiesuvo]

Well done more Australians need to stop our government from destroying our land

[beautifulnature]

People cannot use that water anymore ! It is very sad. There is always a source who caused the pollution. You ask them to give you clean water now in court and to stop the pollution and that they start cleaning up and change their ways. Their pockets are probably filled with money they have earned over the back of the river, fish and people depending on the water. I admire Kate for trying to solve this urgent issue🌷👍

[shaunorourke]

A BIG thank you to Kate, people of the Menindee district and the ACF for the expose on the dire state of the Darling River. I am from the Northern Basin of the Murray/Darling and find the ongoing, slow death of the river extremely distressing - it is equally putrid where there is "water" and you can walk across the totally dry river bed. It is NOT just drought and governments, both State & Federal have been too weak to deal with over usage of water. You're an inspiration Kate!

[davidanderson]

So this is what happens when you combine a savage drought, massive over use of a finite resource and poor government oversight. Please excuse me why I try to look surprised. Great feature - thank you Australian Story.

[holboroman]

As a person who loves clear flowing water, this video made me so sad. I do see some hope, though. Australia is truly a beautiful country. Let's keep it that way.

[susancarden]

Every time l see the Darling River bone dry, it brings tears to my eyes. This is not natural, this has been created by greedy people, diverting the water for other purposes.

[fiegenfiegen]

Cotton in a very dry land! Haven't we learnt anything about the Aral sea???? How can the Australian government allow such a water-intensive crop in the desert??? It is amazing how stupid we can be!

[rpchekte]

Respected Kate ...be continue to fight the good fight..
I'm happy when I see such a good person like you
And I'm very quite sure that if you don't stop and put more efforts on it, then i can say without any hesitation that one day the world will be able to acknowledge the hard works you contribute to bring back the dry Murray-Darling in to alive.

[grantparke]

Get the cotton farms to release their illegal dams!

[psy]

almost 2 years on. has this issue been addressed ? did the people in charge take the responsibility for this disaster ? or has it all been swept under the rug as always?

[huntingluciferblack]

Six months later and the government still doesn't give a shit about us out here.

[FukaiKokoro]

This woman is inspiring. We all need to do our part to help our planet, even the smallest of things can help.

We need to stop greed from destroying us all. Because sure greed is great temporarily. But long term when we can’t even live on our own planet what good is that money? It’s quite sad that our worlds governments have failed us so bad. They are elected to represent us. Yet they screw us every chance they get.

We must change something about how our governments are run. So they don’t have total power. And we are more involved in making big decisions for our society. Because obviously the way politics is currently done isn’t working. People are only representing their bank account and dgaf about how their political decisions effect the world and people.

Like we need more democracy. Like if someone thing is big and effects our earth or effects a lot of people it has to go to a vote / election. Politicians don’t have our best interests in mind anymore. I guarantee that the politicians are BOUGHT off by big cotton. It happens here in the US all the time. If a politician is pushing for something that’s obviously bad for their constituents and bad for the planet follow the money, it all goes back to them being bought off by corporations.

I also think we need to jail for life any politician who takes a single penny from big interests. Because it’s that detrimental to humanity’s future.

[alexramsey]

Kate shoud follow the money track... and find out wich bastarde(s) is planning or making money from what we see

People needs to join in

[rohantherockwiththerocketh]

Cotton farming tends to be very super phosphate heavy as well as water heavy which creates the perfect conditions for blue/green algae blooms especially when there is very little water!

[diceblue]

12:29 - luckily for the people that did this, nobody will ever mention their names, they are laughing - they will never face consequences and it was intentional

[wayneo]

Great to see a young person stepping up and showing leadership and passion about the future.

[nancythomas-wardm.b.a]

So sorry for this catastrophe...
Country and city planners withno experiemce...still a cover up which is the most serious problem...public being manipulated....sounds like a Chinese nightmare zxx

[russellgillick]

The river is doomed. Human greed cannot be stopped.