Murray River Inflows Hit All-Time Record Lows As Australia Braces For Farming Impacts - AFP

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Rivers in Australia's most important farming region are in critical condition thanks to the long-running drought, with no sign of an end to the 'big dry,' officials said Tuesday. The Murray-Darling Basin Commission, which monitors the east coast region that accounts for some 40 percent of the nation's farming production, said the level of water entering the Murray River was at a record low.

Winter inflows were at their equal fifth-lowest in 117 years of records while in the two years to August, water entering the system was at a record low after persistent poor rainfall over the past seven years.

"We're continuing to establish new records that we don't particularly wish to establish," the commission's chief executive Wendy Craik told reporters. "There's really no relief in sight. I think we can say the drought's continuing to worsen."

Australia's three longest rivers, the Murray, the Darling and the Murrumbidgee, form the Murray Darling Basin which runs from Queensland state in the north, through New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia states to the south. The Bureau of Meteorology has said the system needs several months of torrential rain to return the rivers to health, but that such a weather pattern was not on the horizon. "The outlook for the Murray system remains very serious," Craik said an earlier statement.

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