Water Policy Reform: Lessons in Sustainability from the Murray–Darling Basin - Hardcover

Edited by John Quiggin, Thilak Mallawaarachchi and Sarah Chambers, The University of Queensland, Australia

Managing the water of the Murray Darling Basin has emerged as one of the greatest challenges for Australia's scientists, social scientists and policy makers. This book brings together some of Australia's leading economists and social scientists to discuss ideas and solutions for a national problem that is both intriguing and exasperating. Readers will enjoy the candid discussion of both the distant and recent history of this issue, plus the innovative solutions. From a philosophical perspective the reader may wish to muse on the relative merits of different degrees of free market and private property approaches vs top-down control as they pertain to the past, present and future of Australia's largest river basin. --Hugh Possingham, University of Queensland, Australia

This book is a must read for anyone interested in how to ensure sustainability while effectively addressing social and economic issues. The contributors are all well recognised in their areas of expertise and their chapters are highly informative. The book's focus is on policy reform in the Murray Darling Basin. It offers a ''window to the future'' and important insights for other parts of the world that also face the dilemma of the overextraction of water and what to do about it. I highly recommend it. --Quentin Grafton, The Australian National University

[T]he book is a major addition to the literature on water policy and river basin management, and should be widely circulated, read and discussed. --Sailen Routray, Current Science