The Murray River's lower lakes appear to be beyond salvation, according to federal Water Minister Penny Wong.
Signalling that the Rudd Government has all but given up on saving the drought-stricken lakes, Senator Wong said yesterday a final decision on whether to inundate them with seawater would be taken within months.
"Unfortunately, there's just not enough water to do everything we want, so the priority has to be critical human needs," Senator Wong said.
The comments came this week, after the South Australian Government reluctantly began laying the groundwork to abandon the lakes, authorising $30 million to be spent on preparatory works for a weir to protect the river when the lakes are inundated.
Lying near the mouth of the Murray in SA, the lakes have been listed as internationally protected wetlands.
They host a large number of plants, animals and migratory birds.
The prospect of inundation has provoked dismay among locals and scientists, who want the Federal Government to save the lakes by buying more water from upstream irrigators.
Langhorne Creek winemaker John Pargeter, whose property adjoins Lake Alexandrina, said the beginning of works on the weir, combined with Senator Wong's comments, did not bode well.
"It's a nail in the coffin for the lower lakes," he said.
"If we don't get water very, very shortly it will be the death of the lower lakes."
Neil Shillabeer, who chairs a community group at Meningie on Lake Albert, disputed Senator Wong's claim that there was not enough water to save the lakes.
He said the issue was the "preparedness or not of people to give up water".
SA Premier Mike Rann said the weir would be built only as a last resort to safeguard drinking water.
"Do we want to build a weir? No," he said.
Federal Opposition water spokesman Greg Hunt urged the Government to think carefully before "destroying the freshwater ecology of the lower lakes for a generation, a half-century or perhaps even a century".
Peter Cosier, of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, said it would be a sad day if the lakes were inundated.
"The advice I have is once the salt water's in there, it is next to impossible to get it out."
But grape grower Tom Keelan saw both sides.
"Unfortunately, something has to happen, and a weir is really the only option left, to protect Adelaide's water supply," he said.
The SA Government's adviser on drought, former Liberal premier Dean Brown, said the fate of the lakes depended on rainfall over the next two months.
"There's a 50pc chance that there might be enough flow in the river and enough flow into the lakes to maintain the level where it is," Mr Brown said.
A meeting of federal and state water ministers is due to decide the fate of the lakes in October.
Any decision to introduce salt water into the lakes would be made by SA, but federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett would need to formally approve.
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