VFF hold basin plan meeting

FEBRUARY 3, 2012 4:50am

Northern Victoria could potentially lose an extra 420 gigalitres of water on top of what it already has to save under the Murray-Darling Basin Draft Plan in its current form.

By Monique Preston

This is what the 37 people who attended yesterday’s Victorian Farmers Federation meeting about the basin plan were told by VFF senior water policy advisor Melanie Brown.

Under the draft plan, 2750Gl in water savings has to be found in Victoria.

Each catchment has an allocation of water savings to be made, while a further 971Gl could come from anywhere in the Victorian basin.

It is lack of clarity about where these water savings would come from, and the potential impacts it could have on communities, that has the VFF worried.

The VFF is concerned the 420Gl could have to come from northern Victorian irrigators.

‘‘Most of our share of the 420Gl would come out of the Goulburn system,’’ VFF Water Council chairman Richard Anderson said.

‘‘It’s not sustainable to come out of districts.

‘‘That 420Gl is equivalent to closing down the Rochester and Pyramid Hill irrigation districts.’’

Rather than trying to make water savings from irrigation districts, the VFF would like the plan to instead make up the amount from environmental infrastructure efficiency changes.

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