Issue #1431      14 October 2009

Doing “something” about water

Bob Briton

The federal government is keen to be seen to be doing “something” about the disastrous state of the Murray-Darling river system. It has a “no regrets” attitude to the buybacks it has already made of water entitlements from irrigators and other users throughout the system. Climate Change and Water Minister Penny Wong insists she had to start spending the $3.1 billion earmarked for entitlement buyback over the next decade to make some impact on the looming disaster.

Despite the splashing of cash and the impending release of various plans and reports, experts are concerned at the lack of a unified approach and the tip-toeing around big economic interests.

Minister Wong says the buybacks were guided by the CSIRO’s Sustainable Yields Report and Sustainable Rivers Audit. Farmers have been relocated to more viable locations. Others have got out of their previous business altogether. They have been “willing sellers in an open market”. Since the scheme was introduced in February 2008, 545 gigalitres* worth of entitlements have been bought and restored to environmental flows. It should be noted that the actual water available only amounted to approximately 343 gigalitres but, given that Sydney Harbour contains around 500 gigalitres, it is still a lot of water.

Wong reports that the level of interest in selling entitlements has been so high that the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts has had to rein in the spending. Some irrigated properties are more sustainable than others. The CSIRO estimates that if the least viable farms were closed and irrigation was focussed on the best locations, the value of agricultural production could actually increase by 24 percent despite less water being made available.

A wide range of groups, including the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), want a more targeted approach than has been taken with the $840 million spent so far. Eventually a limit to the supply of “willing sellers” will be met and the strength of the will of the governments involved will be tested.

Nerves are on edge as that day looms. The Victorian government’s Northern Victoria Irrigation Project trialled a “traffic light” project. “Red” irrigation properties were deemed non-viable, “green” ones were said to be viable. The “red” category was renamed “yellow” so as to calm the growing anxiety in communities reliant on irrigation. Doubts are growing that the federal buyback scheme and the $5.8 billion promised for more efficient irrigation equipment will be enough to complete the environmental fix. In order to save the Murray it is estimated that a further 600 gigalitres will have to reach the Murray Mouth (where the system exits to the sea) every year. Where is that water going to come from?

The South Australian government is building a desalination plant at Port Stanvac to take pressure off the ailing river. Victoria is getting one at Wonthaggi. A billion dollar north-south pipeline is being built to take water from the already stressed Goulburn basin to Melbourne’s Sugarloaf reservoir.

“The economic rationalist vision driving this water is one water market, which puts towns and regions in competition with each other to allow water to move to its highest value use,” Age columnist Kenneth Davidson wrote recently. “The north-south pipeline will allow for privatised water markets in the non-agricultural sector. Water from Eildon Weir would be sold into a 5 million population market ranging from Ballarat and Bendigo in the north through Melbourne and Geelong in the south”.

The stakes are high. The irrigation areas in question produce $9 billion in farm gate revenue. A quarter of the country’s GDP relies on the health of the river system. The region is considered our “foodbowl”. A calamity here would impact poorer Australians with crippling increases in the weekly food bill. This process might start if acidification moves up the Murray to take out areas of the Riverland.

In the meantime, the scattergun approach continues. The Victorian government has just renewed 9,200 permits for cattle to roam freely along 17,000 kilometres of river banks along the Murray, Goulburn and Thomson rivers. Health experts warn of the effects of erosion and animal waste entering drinking water supplies. The National Water Commission (NWC) is arguing before a parliamentary committee for a review of the effect of mining on surface and ground water. “Future developments, including mining in the Namoi and coal-seam methane gas extraction in Southern Queensland could, if not adequately regulated, impact on the surface and groundwater systems at both the local and regional scales,” the NWC warns. The pro-mining NSW Minerals Council insists current regulations are fine.

As the Productivity Commission and the Murray Darling Basin Authority finish off their reports to the federal government on aspects of the water crisis, it is already clear that a truly coordinated, centralised approach that puts the needs of the environment and communities first is needed. It is way past time for the federal government to come clean with the community about what steps will be needed to deal with the problems besetting the Murray-Darling and to put mining, agribusiness and other corporate interests back in their box.

* A gigalitre is a billion litres

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