Water and land : two case studies in irrigation

Abstract

The two studies in this book appraise Australia{u2019}s largest irrigation schemes, those of the Murray-Murrumbidgee river systems. Because an absolute shortage of water and a notoriously erratic rain fall severely restrict industrial growth and closer settlement, most Australians accept - in fact, demand - government-implemented water conservation projects, including irrigation. The authors{u2019} primary concern in this book is not with the economic wisdom of such irrigation development: they accept some expansion as inevitable. But they condemn acceptance of specific projects in which official assessments stress engineering or agronomic issues at the expense of less spectacular but equally vital socio logical or economic aspects. This book analyses, and contributes substantially to the understanding of, the problems of irrigation, both in Australia and abroad: problems as acute and controversial in Egypt, India, Asia, or America as they are in Australia.