THE outlook for the 2020-21 year is looking more positive compared to last year according to the Murray Darling Basin Authority’ s (MDBA) Annual Operating Outlook released last week.
MDBA executive director of River Management, Andrew Reynolds, said the full range of scenarios from extreme dry to very wet have been considered, but river managers are cautiously optimistic that 2020-21 will be a better year than 2019-2020.
“The outlook is better than the same time last year because we’ve got the trifecta we’ve been waiting for, catchments are primed after the wet autumn, we’ve got more water in storage compared to the same time last year and the Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting higher than average spring rainfall,” Mr Reynolds said.
As of July 22, 2020, southern b asin storages are at 51 percent compared to 40 percent at the same time last year.
“We’re still a way off filling the storages, but the critical mid-Murray storage at Lake Victoria is close to capacity, thanks to good winter flows from the tributaries downstream of Hume Dam. This means less of the supply to South Australia will need to come from the Hume as it’s sitting there in Lake Victoria now, ready to go.
This year the Annual Operating O utlook considers the shortfall risk to be greatest in late summer and autumn under ‘moderate’ or ‘near-average’ rainfall scenarios, due to the Barmah Choke, intervalley trade constraints and other limitations on the system’s capacity to meet the anticipated demand for water.”
The 2020-2021 Annual Operating Outlook is available on the MDBA website at www.mdba.gov.au/publications/mdba-reports/river-murray-system-annual-operating-plan.
