Once again our riverside communities have had to band together and endure the natural flooding which occurs periodically in our part of the world.
We can’t control the rainfall, but it is the absolute epitome of ‘environmental water flows’. It highlights the continuing stupidity of the Murray Darling Basin Plan then, that despite having thousands of gigalitres of natural environmental flows (from rainfall) down our rivers, that in this same wet year, the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH) in conjunction with the Murray Darling Basin Authority will exacerbate an already fragile water system by again pushing thousands of gigalitres down the system.
Many who follow the water debate have looked on in horror when, in dry years, the CEWH has held the majority of water and pushed water down the system whilst farmers and irrigators had their water allocations slashed and could only watch the water go past them. In effect, making a dry year, dryer for food producers.
However, the mindless stupidity of this plan does not only play out in dry years. In wet years, like the one we are experiencing, these agencies will either push thousands of gigalitres more water down a fragile river system OR take up precious dam capacity for upcoming years which directly reduces future drought-proofing for food producers… Doing precisely the opposite of what our forefathers built this irrigation infrastructure for.
In short, we continue to endure a policy which makes dry years dryer for food producers and exacerbates environmental damage in record wet years like the current one.
As a final point just to reassure all readers we have reached peak madness when it comes to water policy in this country. The much discussed ‘450GL’ was only ever supposed to be returned to the environment if it could be proven that no further socio-economic damage would be imposed on irrigation communities. The current federal ALP government has now made it clear that they will dismiss the damage already done to communities, and worse, pursue a further 450GL for ‘the environment’.
Policymakers need to understand that in order to push this additional amount of water down the river each year – ALL major rivers would need to run at a minor flood level, all year round, to get that much water down the system. Government will then have created a situation where minor flood levels existed all year round causing a completely unnatural scenario where both environmental damage is caused, and food production would be further jeopardized due to increased water insecurity.
Whilst many Australians are tearing their hair out at a potential increase in electricity costs of 50 percent over the next 18 months. Consider how precarious family farming food producers are battling both higher electricity prices and further water insecurity in dry years. We should not have to wait until our food security is threatened before we see real policy change in this space.
I call on all policymakers to look at this situation and do better. The status-quo is a hodge podge of bandaids built on a fundamentally flawed, unadaptable, water volume-based system which unbelievably manages to consistently fail every single stakeholder.
Steve Brooks
Cobram
