BRUCE McCOLLUM has been a vocal opponent of previous Murray-Darling Basin Water Plans. But he is now “guardedly optimistic”.. Find out why...
Long term annual average flows in the Basin are 32,000 gigalitres (GL). Last week, after years in the making, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was signed into law by Commonwealth Water Minister Tony Burke.
The Plan reduces take from these flows from 13,622 GL to 10,872 GL, providing an extra 2,750 GL for the environment by 2019.
The objective is to maintain healthy working rivers in the long term, thereby protecting the economic and social viability of Basin communities.
The Plan is a disallowable instrument.
At the time of writing, the Greens are expected to move for its disallowance in the Senate because they say it does not return enough water to the environment.
The Coalition, however, is likely to vote with the Government to defeat the Greens’ motion. The Plan will then move into implementation phase.
So what does the Plan mean for the Northern Basin (the Barwon-Darling and its tributaries: the Condamine-Balonne, Border Rivers, Gwydir, Namoi and Macquarie)?
Quite a lot of environmental water has already been recovered through purchases from willing sellers and co-investment by irrigators and the Commonwealth Government in on-farm infrastructure works to increase water use efficiency.
Remaining to be recovered by 2019 is 68 GL for the environmental watering needs of the Condamine-Balonne, six GL for the environmental watering needs of the Border Rivers, and 64 GL for the environmental watering needs of the BarwonDarling down to Menindee Lakes.
The latter is referred to as a “shared contribution” from the tributaries. Set at 143 GL, 79 GL has already been recovered.
Deciding how much of the remainder will come from each tributary, and how it will be recovered, is a key task for the next three years.
Turning now to the Border Rivers, our system has two main components.
The regulated system comprises the rivers from Pindari, Glenlyon and Coolmunda Dams down to Mungindi.
The unregulated system is the rivers without dams such as the Upper Macintyre, Mole, Severn (Qld) and Weir. Because trading from unregulated to regulated rivers is not allowed, water recovery in the Border Rivers is mainly from licences on the Macintyre from its junction with the Dumaresq upstream of Boggabilla through to Mungindi. This is where the bulk of irrigation water is held and used.
The big question for us in this catchment is how much of the remaining 64 GL of “shared contribution” we will be required to contribute, and whether this can be recovered without any loss of productivity.
In an ideal world it would all come from works and measures: savings made by increasing the efficiency of both public and private infrastructure, and by managing the system more effectively.
In reality, some of it will come from buyback: purchases from willing sellers.
If the licences bought are “sleepers” (water entitlements not currently being used) or “dozers” (water entitlements used only partially), then the impact on productivity, employment and the local economy should be small.
The outright sale of fully productive water is the worst outcome for our catchment.
The Border Rivers Environmental Water Network (BREWN) was formed over a year ago to make sure that our community has a say in how the Basin Plan is implemented. It has representatives from water users, industry associations, local government, the business community, natural resource
management organisations, Regional Development Australia committees, State and Commonwealth Government water and environmental agencies and the general community. Involvement is open to anyone who has an interest in the environmental, economic and social aspects of water in the Border Rivers.
More details can be found online at www.brewn.net.
BREWN has formed a Technical Working Group to fully understand the Basin Plan.
In particular, this group will investigate the basis for the “shared contribution” and incatchment needs, the environmental changes the Plan seeks to achieve, whether these changes are appropriate, whether they can be achieved with less water, and if so, how and where from. The MurrayDarling Basin Authority (MDBA) has indicated that serious notice will be taken of suggestions and recommendations from local communities.
This is an important part of the process of testing the science used to develop the Plan against “on the ground” knowledge and experience.
BREWN will advocate the sensible and practical implementation of the Plan so that productivity is maintained or enhanced, and there is no decline in the economic and social viability of our communities.
Thinking back to the large, angry public meetings held when the Guide to the Basin Plan was released, several significant changes have occurred since that time, at least partly due to “people power”.
The Northern Basin has been separated from the Southern Basin because they are totally different systems. Economic and social considerations have been elevated to their rightful place beside environmental ones. In the future, more water for the environment can only be recovered if there are no adverse economic and social impacts. Works and measures are now the preferred methods of recovering water for the environment, with buyback taking a back seat. Processes have been put in place so that better scientific knowledge can be used to adjust extraction limits.
Most importantly, the sudden catastrophic changes flagged by the Guide have now been replaced by a gradual process over the next seven years so that any adjustment required can take place on an incremental basis.
MDBA has formed a Northern Basin Advisory Committee (NBAC) to act as a link with local communities.
NBAC will provide community input to inform MDBA in the implementation of the Plan in the Northern Basin. The Border Rivers is well represented on the 11-person Committee, with Mal Peters from Ashford as Chair and Michelle Ramsay from Bonshaw and me from Goondiwindi as members. This gives us direct access to MDBA Chair Craig Knowles, CEO Rhondda Dickson and senior staff in charge of various aspects of the Plan. We also have access to the Commonwealth Government’s infrastructure program and buyback managers, and to the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder.
Personally, I am now guardedly optimistic that the Basin Plan will result in manageable impacts for the Border Rivers if we are smart enough to come up with innovative recommendations, and committed enough to see it through.This is how Craig Knowles’ concept of localism is being put into practice. It is up to all of us to make it work.
This is encouraging for our major irrigation town, Goondiwindi, and our many other towns and villages that rely on irrigated production as one of the major contributors to the regional economy.
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