Mass fish deaths in Australia

As many as a million fish are believed to have died along the banks of a major river system in drought-battered eastern Australia, and the authorities warned on Monday of more deaths to come.

The banks of the MurrayDarling rivers are thick with rotten fish.

Further high temperatures forecast for this week could make the situation worse, the New South Wales government has warned.

Low water conditions and the heat may also have encouraged an algal bloom that starves the fish of oxygen and produces toxins.

The deaths have become a national issue, sparking angry allegations about the cause and who is responsible.

“It’s a devastating ecological event,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday, pointing to apocalyptic scenes.

His government has blamed the fish deaths on drought, and defended policies which some locals say have caused the systemic depletion and pollution of the river system.

But for years scientists have been warning of people extracting vast amounts of water without check for irrigation or other uses, undercutting billions of dollars of investment.

“Dead fish and dying rivers are not because of the drought, it’s because we are extracting too much water from our river,” Australian National University water economics expert John Williams said.

Morrison insisted the management plan for the MurrayDarling Basin was bipartisan, adding that his government was only following on the policies of the opposition Labour government.