THE Murray Darling Basin Plan is in many ways, affected by the way floodplain harvesting absorbs vast quantities of water denying its use by downstream users. This shortfall has in the past put pressure on the Victorian irrigation system to make up for it.
In August this year, Member for Shepparton District, Suzanna Sheed made a presentation to the New South Wales Select Committee on Floodplain Harvesting but fears implementation of the recommendations may be largely ignored by the NSW Water Minister Melinda Pavey.
“The minister appears to be in a rush to issue floodplain harvesting licences by Christmas, before proper consideration of the recommendations can be made and an appropriate government response provided,” Ms Sheed said.
Ms Sheed, said that the Select Committee findings clearly stated there were too many “inadequacies and uncertainties around floodplain harvesting” and that caution should be exercised before any licensing took place.
“In my submission to the inquiry, I called for end of valley targets to be met before water was allocated to floodplain harvesters.
“We saw this with our own eyes during our trip up the Darling River across NSW and into Southern Queensland, in April this year.
“A group of water stakeholders from the Goulburn Valley joined me on this trip and we came back with an appreciation of these impacts, particularly on the low flows in the Darling River, which have adversely affected so many communities.
“Another major impact of these low flows has been the failure of water delivery from the Northern Basin to the Murray, which has to be made up by Southern Basin rivers.
“There was a time when 39 percent of the contribution to South Australia was made up by waters flowing down the Darling River.
“Now it is only in large floods, such as is happening right now, that these flows reach the Murray River.
“There can be no justification for acting in haste when the potential impacts of doing so could reverberate for years on downstream river communities, especially all of us in the Southern Basin.” said Ms Sheed.
