Report 1:Murray River towns face tough water restrictions Albury and other towns
ID: 420992 • Letter: R
Question
Report 1:Murray River towns face tough water restrictions
Albury and other towns along the Murray River are expected to go on strict water conditions by July.
The New South Wales Department of Natural Resources will brief councils this Thursday on water availability.
The department's executive director of water, David Harriss, says the outlook for water allocations for councils is not good.
He says councils will be required to introduce stage four restrictions by July 1 if there is no rain.
"We've agreed with South Australia and Victoria that if conditions persist as they are then everywhere along the Murray Valley, if we're going to be consistent we're going to have to put on consistent restrictions in all of the urban areas and that includes Adelaide, Albury, Shepparton, Mildura and the little towns," he said.
Albury City Council water spokesman Dale Blanpead says a decision on tougher water restrictions could be made within two weeks.
He says stage four restrictions would be appropriate given the severe water shortage.
"I don't think anybody would run the risk of running out of water by being irresponsible with the management of it and it would appear what we're going to be told is that it looks like the allocations are going to be consistent with stage four restrictions," he said.
Tuesday, 24 April 2007. 14:07 (AEST), source ABC
Report 2: Temporary weir (temporary dam) proposed for Murray River
A temporary weir in the Murray River in South Australia is among a number of proposals outlined by the Federal Government to address Australia's water crisis.
The plan is contained in a report from last year's emergency water summit.
If the drought continues and if the South Australian Government agrees, the weir would be built near Wellington on the Murray River.
Detailing the proposal today, Acting Prime Minister Mark Vaile also announced plans to lower target, end of season reserves in Lake Victoria and reduce minimum flow targets and early pumping to build reserves in Mount Lofty storages in South Australia.
The Federal Government has struck an agreement with Victoria and South Australia on five measures to ensure towns in the southern Murray Darling Basin system will continue to have urban water supplies.
It expects the New South Wales Government will also come on board.
Mr Vaile says the states have agreed to reduce water loss from river systems and disconnect some wetlands that are flooded from the Murray Darling Basin system.
"We're proposing disconnecting selected permanent wetlands that are inundated under regulated low flows from the system, while these extreme circumstance exist," he said.
A final decision on whether to build the weir will be made next month.
Mr Vaile says under the agreement reached so far, the states and the Murray Darling Basin Commission will adjust operations of their river systems to improve flexibility and minimise losses.
"They're measures that send a clear message to the community that we take the interest of the community, and the people that need those essential supplies of water, as our primary concern," he said.
"That we're prepared to curtail other measures such as providing flows into some of those wetland areas that are not absolutely necessary to ensure that water is available to those communities." The contingency plans were put together in case this year is as hot and dry as 2006.
Mr Vaile stressed these are all contingency plans that can be modified or indeed abandoned if the
situation changes.
Friday, 12 January 2007. 15:06 (ACDT), source ABC
Consider yourself as a manager in a textile manufacturing company in the region that you source water from Murray River.
Case Questions:
1.Identify stakeholders for your organisation.
2.Describe two major views regarding social responsibility?
3.Discuss major arguments for and against social responsibility.(three each)
4. You, on behalf of your organisation, are lobbying for your higher share of the water. Discuss factors that might influence your ethical behaviour?
Please answer the question clearly
Explanation / Answer
A1. Key Stakeholders include company employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders, labor union and the business community.
A2. Social responsibility is necessary for business to undertake in order to cater to the long term strategic interest of the stakeholders. This is important for organizations to do business in stable, healthy, prospering and law-abiding society. Hence, efforts must be made by companies to embrace those entities which is dealt by management i.e. customers, employees, society and government. To give back to society, it is important for business to visualize it as responsible entity and not think about profits while making efforts in this direction.
Another perspective that can be taken for this why an organization should spend on something that is related to or impacted by its business. For example, the cause of drought in the city might not be complete responsibility of the company. Government collect taxes to spend on public structures like this. Also, an organization will not be able to make profits if huge funds flows out in social welfare. It is important to have a balance for this.
A3. Arguments for social responsibility
1. Social responsibility helps in creating a good image in mind of customers and employees as it also generates feeling of pride among them.
2. Government expect business to discharge their obligations by making the society better. This helps in dealing with these regulations at ease.
3. This must be taken as token of gratitude by organizations as business get benefits by using resources from society. This can be a useful method to give back to society.
Arguments against social responsibility
1. The goal of profit maximization gets affected by letting the funds flow outside the organization.
2. The act of social responsibility must be handled by the government or non profit organizations whose main focus is public welfare.
3. The company performance gets impacted by their involvement in social welfare activities. The people who are involved with this area deliver poor performance at work and primary duties are not performed very well.
A4. Ethical behavior might be compromised if there is an incentive attached with the completion of the objective that is being given by the organization. For example, a promise of promotion made to the manager for successfully lobbying for higher share of water might motivate him/her for use of unethical behavior. Also, not having appropriate knowledge about the effects of driving more water towards the company area might also lead to unethical practice. There might be an adverse affect on environment in doing this but completing the task just for personal objective is a practice which shows unethical behavior.