On the banks of the Darling, near Menindee, two grown men are fighting back tears.

Farmers and water experts say New South Wales government rule changes could be causing more water loss to the Murray-Darling river system than before the national plan was put in place.

Protected areas are a cornerstone strategy for terrestrial and increasingly marine biodiversity conservation, but their use for conserving inland waters has received comparatively scant attention. In 2010, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) included a target of 17% protection for inland waters, yet there has been no meaningful way of measuring progress toward that target. Defining and evaluating “protection” is especially complicated for rivers because their integrity is intimately linked to impacts in their upstream catchments.

The federal government will seek to reduce the Murray Darling water buyback target by 200 billion litres that will lower the government’s previously announced cap, according to a new strategy paper

The Australian Conservation Foundation says that without an independent umpire, wider disputes over water use could arise

The Greens’ deputy leader, Adam Bandt, describes Coalition MP's move as a “a sneak attack on the environment'

Both governments have agreed to commit to replenishing water to key river system in return for federal cash

NSW has warned there are still major hurdles to be overcome before an agreement can be reached to save the ailing Murray-Darling river system, as the clock ticks down on finalising a deal this year

Freshwater scarcity is a growing concern, placing considerable importance on the accuracy of indicators used to characterize and map water scarcity worldwide. We improve upon past efforts by using estimates of blue water footprints (consumptive use of ground- and surface water flows) rather than water withdrawals, accounting for the flows needed to sustain critical ecological functions and by considering monthly rather than annual values. We analyzed 405 river basins for the period 1996–2005.

The challenge of balancing human needs for water with those of the environment has come to a head in Australia's ailing Murray

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