CONSERVATIONISTS have hit back at claims the Murray Darling Basin Plan favours environmental interests over the needs of local agricultural communities.
Last month, Southern Riverina Irrigators — the organisation representing irrigation communities in the local area — signed a motion of no-confidence in the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA), saying it was ignoring the concerns of local communities, particularly in the Wakool Shire.
The statement accompanying the motion argued the authority was using “rhetoric and propaganda” to skew its evaluations and monitoring of the basin plan’s outcomes in favour of environmental benefits.
This was especially the case, the statement argued, with the government’s scheme of buying back water entitlements from local irrigators to help it achieve the Basin Plan’s environmental goals.
“The most recent assessment of the social and economic effects of implementation of the Basin Plan on the Wakool Shire clearly indicates the devastating effect it is having on the region’s economy and the associated destruction it is causing to the communities’ social fabric,” the statement read.
“While there has always been ambiguity and debate surrounding a balanced triple bottom line, the evidence is stark, the environment has primacy over social and economic considerations.”
However, the Australian Conservation Foundation refutes these claims, with its healthy ecosystems program manager Jonathan La Nauze saying the basin plan’s environmental targets were too conservative to begin with.
“The deal that was reached back in 2012 to restore around about three billion litres [of environmental water] a year to the river still wouldn’t even restore the river to two thirds of its natural flow,” Mr La Nauze said.
“We’re taking more than a third of the river’s natural flow on average every year — more than that, by proportion, in drier years.
“So, it’s already a very compromised deal, I would reject entirely the suggestion that the environment has come out on top somehow.”
He said there were a number of environmental problems associated with not restoring the river to its natural flow, which would only exacerbate the social and economic crises felt in rural communities.
“The natural system supports agriculture, supplies drinking water to 2 million Australians, supports recreational fishing – which is a huge industry throughout the basin,” Mr La Nauze said.
“You’re pushing that system to the brink and if you don’t actually look after it in the long run, everybody suffers.”
