mmg.com.au

The ABC’s 7.30 Report last Wednesday night highlighted the irony of Basin Plan proponents who say taking water from irrigators will protect the system from drought, according to the Murray Group of Concerned Communities (MGCC).

Journalist Hayden Cooper’s report, which focussed on the difficulties faced by the Coalition to manage their position on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, showed how entrenched the opinion that irrigators rather than the weather are the cause of the basin’s problems, the MGCC said.

MGCC chair Bruce Simpson said Mr Cooper’s report again highlighted how little some people understand the realities of the drought and water management.

‘‘Today the mouth of the Murray River is a picture of health. Water is flowing again, the fish are back and so are the tourists. It’s a far cry from the dry years of the past decade,’’ Mr Cooper reported.

‘‘The irony is that today irrigators in New South Wales also have access to water and have planted the largest areas of crops in years,’’ Mr Simpson said.

‘‘Whereas during the dry years of the past decade, these farmers had little to zero allocations and next to zero crops were planted — especially in our region.

‘‘If irrigators were the reason that the Lower Lakes fell below sea level you would think that would be happening now when they are irrigating, not during the drought when irrigated production fell dramatically.’’

Mr Simpson is concerned about the apparent misconception that irrigators, particularly broadacre irrigators who predominantly hold general or low security water entitlements, kept watering crops during the drought.

‘‘The NSW allocation system doesn’t let that happen,’’ he said.

‘‘When water is scarce, (general security) allocations are low or zero. Annual or broadacre farmers don’t plant crops if they don’t have water.

‘‘It may be cheeky to point out that at the same time Adelaide’s reliance on the Murray River for its water supplies rose to 90 per cent compared to 40 per cent in a normal rainfall period,’’ Mr Simpson said.

Much of the water purchased by the Commonwealth Government in the NSW Murray area is the same general security entitlement product held by farmers that fell to zero water allocation during the drought, he said.

‘‘At the peak of the drought the Commonwealth effectively owned paper that could not provide any extra flows to South Australia,’’ Mr Simpson said.

‘‘This is why environmental works and measures are so important because they are designed to get water to where it is needed without relying on massive flow events that just don’t happen most years.’’

‘‘We will have drought again and we will have flood again. What we need to do is manage the environment and the water in between and that can be done with the entitlements the government currently holds if they use works and measures.’’

The proposed Murray-Darling Basin Plan recommends 2750 gigalitres be diverted away from productive irrigation use and used for environmental purposes.

Local stakeholders argue the amount will decimate the socio-economic fabric of Murray-Darling communities.