The Wire

The NSW government held an auction in the town of Walgett today for new licenses to extract water from the Great Artesian Basin, despite the objections of farmers, green groups and scientists. In the leadup to the selloff, farmers in both NSW and Queensland have expressed anger over the scheme, saying that water they saved through more efficient use of their bores is now being auctioned off by the NSW government. Some scientists are concerned that not enough is known about the great artesian basin to be sure the auctioned water licenses are environmentally sustainable.