Visiting Brewarrina
Pumping water.
Motor sounds
across the drying river.
Rustic images of a cottage
with no town water
but a pump to switch on
whenever you need to.
But there’s no cottage here,
no peasants,
just a dam
the size of a quarter of Sydney Harbour
and fresh, clean water
splashing into the almost full dam
from the four huge pipes
attached to the noisy pump.
And the cotton plantation
in the middle of the desert
swimming in the water.
Further down the river
we ground the boat
because the river bed
is dried and cracked.
The redgums are white
and laying dead now
and the people have to hope
there’s enough water
to shower before work.
Sometimes they go to work
smelling from the lack of water.
We go into a pub in the town
and they’re talking about
having no water
so the thieves
can grow cotton
in the desert up stream.
Peter Cartwright
July 2017
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-24/murray-darling-basin-water-pumped-by-irrigators/8732702
