Sold down the river

Australians have been "sold down the river" during the past week. Our politicians, State and Federal ,have just agreed on a plan which will "save" our River Murray - but not until well-after it has died (in South Australia at the very least).
The people whom we elected have neglected the Murray/Darling river system for generations. The mighty streams that once supported fleets of paddle-boats that carried the produce and people that opened up much of our country's interior are now barely shadows of the past. The Murray mouth lakes are drying and salty, irrigators in Victoria and South Australia are facing bankruptcy, and those in the big-money up-river zones are taking all the water they can get from the flow that recent high-country rains have left.
Never mind, though - our leaders have a plan!
They're going to buy back water rights from holders who want to sell them, they're paying the "difficult" Victoria 1$billion to modernise its irrigation system and to co-operate with the other river states, and they're planning how they'll rejuvenate the river system (but not expecting effective change for years).
There is, of course, more planned. The Feds are to subsidise construction of a de-salination plant for Adelaide, where household water (pumped from the river) is already more polluted than U.N. minimum standards, and the promise to allow special flows downstream, if necessary (I presume) to keep us from drinking ourselves into illness.
You might say that down here at the bottom end of the "sewer", we're all just a bit cynical!