Waterwatch: Community springs into action

摘要

IN APRIL 1994, Pyrethrum and caustic soda flowed out of an industrial holding pond into the Great Forester Eiver in north-east Tasmania and killed everything for forty kilometres down-stream. Six kilometres away, the chemicals were still so concentrated that they burnt the feet of children who waded into the water to pick up dead fish. In the rural municipality of Dorset, this incident simply added to the impacts already occurring. Agricultural use of 80% of available surface water has resulted in reduced flows in the lower reaches of the river and increasing problems of sedimentation and farm chemical pollution.