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 COAG to talk water for desperate Murray 

COAG to talk water for desperate Murray

2/07/2008 10:54:00 AM
State premiers and the Prime Minister will nut out the final agreement on the national plan for the Murray Darling Basin at a meeting in Sydney tomorrow.

While the Government won't reveal what's on the agenda, it's believed the inter-governmental agreement (IGA) which will detail the operation of the $12 billion national plan for water security between the States and the Federal Government will be a high priority, with leaders expected to tie up more than four months of negotiations on technical issues with responsibilities and liabilities.

The National Farmers' Federation was briefed on the IGA so far on Monday, with outstanding issues to be dealt with at the meeting including a final agreement on new reserves for South Australia, how to move into contingency planning and the final shape of the Murray Darling Basin Authority.

NFF water spokesman Laurie Arthur said he would not be able to comment on the IGA until the final agreement is made tomorrow because he did not know which way the decisions would go on those outstanding issues.

Mr Arthur said while there would be some discussion too about the current crisis situation in the system, particularly the lower half of the Murray Darling Basin, he was unsure what more could be done by irrigators to help save the Lower Lakes and Coorong in South Australia because there were currently zero allocation for even high security irrigators in the Murray and Murrumbidgee valleys.

"I know some papers have been pointing the finger at the evil irrigator and there are a lot of myths about how they're going to fix the lower lakes, but there's not even any water for irrigation," Mr Arthur said.

"Unless governments want to give up water supposed to be for critical needs of towns, or take the very little carryover left to keep permanent plantings alive, I'm not sure where they're going to find this extra water for the Lower Lakes.

"There just hasn't been any run-off. It's the bleakest it's been."

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Comments


Date: Newest first | Oldest first
it may be the bleakest it's been, but no one was listening to the Wentworth group 10, yes 10 years ago when they were warning irrigators and State Govt's it was going to get to this if nothing was done. So, nothing was done and now it is as bleak as its been. This was as plain as it gets (the warnings), but state greed and pandering to voters has left us all high and dry!!!!
Posted by Tom Tom on 3/07/2008 8:42:11 AM
tom tom is exactly right, and if five years ago you looked at the trend line for the % storage capacity available in the system and you could read a graph it was obvious that it would reach zero about last year. The current situation should be no surprise to anyone.
Posted by brian on 3/07/2008 2:07:22 PM
Try living on the lakes and make a living. Governments, State & National, did not do any forward planning since the Barrages were built in 1940. The problem at the moment, Govts have no idea how to remedy the water problem in the Murray Darling Basin, it's all about meetings.
Posted by angasb on 3/07/2008 3:38:39 PM

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