Victorian Shadow Water Minister Steph Ryan has continued the push for 300GL of environment water to be traded onto the market to assist drought-affected farmers in Victoria and NSW.
Ms Ryan said reports is the media have highlighted yet again the pressure irrigators are under while the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH) flushes about 400GL of environmental water down the river as part of the Southern Spring Flows program that began in August.
“Irrigators are in desperate need of more water for livestock and crops, but instead they’re forced to watch 400GL of water flood forests that would otherwise be dry at a time of drought,” Ms Ryan said.
“There’s an opportunity to urgently trade 300GL of environment water onto the market that would make a real difference for our drought-affected farmers in Victoria and NSW.
“Temporary water has risen to prices not seen since the height of the millennium drought, soaring to $800/ML in recent weeks and expected to head further north towards $1000/ML soon.
“The CEWH carried over 420GL in its Southern Basin carryover account this year – the water is there.
“Communities in northern Victoria are at breaking point and urgently need to see more water made available.”
Ms Ryan said immediate action was also needed from the Victorian Government.
The Victorian Liberal Nationals have been leading calls for the release of 75GL of water owed to Goulburn Murray irrigators as part of the Connections Project.
Victorian Water Minister Lisa Neville missed the June 2019 deadline to return this water to irrigators.
“The Minister owes Victorian irrigators a guarantee this water won’t be traded away and will be returned to irrigators – in full,” Ms Ryan said.
“Our communities are hurting. Enough is enough. Spring St and Canberra need to start listening to our irrigators before it’s too late.”
The objective of the Southern Spring Flows program aims to provide food and shelter for native fish and other aquatic animals along the River Murray, from Hume Dam to the Coorong. By flushing out leaf litter in the cooler months, the flows aim to reduce the risk of blackwater events, and associated fish deaths, in the summer.
The 2019 program began on August 1 with the first flow lasting 2-3 weeks and a second flow starting from September 1 for at least 6 weeks. The water release is combined with other flows with a target of up to 2.2m (15,000 megalitres/day) downstream of the Yarrawonga Weir. Environmental water holders have about 400 gigalitres of water available (carried over from last year).
The target areas are for the River Murray channel and key wetlands and creeks in Barmah-Millewa and Gunbower-Koondrook-Pericoota forests, Edward-Wakool, Lake Kramen (Vic Hattah-Kulkyne Lakes), Chowilla, Coorong and Lower Lakes.
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