$500 million to be spent on Murray-Darling ...

Excerpt from the Sydney Morning Herald:

The Federal Government will pour $500 million into the ailing Murray River - the waterway's largest cash injection in 10 years - in today's federal budget. It will underscore John Howard's promise to "put a bomb under the process" of saving the river.

The money will be paid in one hit to the Murray-Darling Basin Commission by the end of this financial year for projects aimed at restoring the Murray's health, from its origins in Queensland and NSW to its mouth in South Australia.

The new money will help such projects as:

- salt interception along the river to help reduce salinity levels;

- the sea-to-Hume Dam fishway, which aims to replenish native fish stocks by giving them free access from the ocean to the Hume Dam on the NSW-Victorian border;

- building new water pumping stations, as well as upgrading existing ones; and

- sending an extra 500 billion litres of water annually down the river by 2009.

See - Murray-Darling gets $500m.