PEOPLE often ask me why I talk so much about floodplain harvesting in the Northern Basin – when irrigators divert water into their private dams before it reaches the river.
Why is it important? Why should we care?
Let me explain the background.
In the early 1990s, state and federal governments decided too much water was being extracted from our river system.
They came up with something called the Murray-Darling Basin Plan – which was supposed to reduce the amount of water used for irrigation and preserve more water from the environment.
As a result, the government set a legal limit of extraction.
All future water take would need to be restricted at the level it was back in 1994 (what’s commonly called the “cap”).
But for some bizarre reason, Northern Basin irrigators have been allowed to increase their water storage since 1994 by 142 per cent.
They have used their water storages to extract trillions of litres of water via floodplain harvesting
This isn’t fair.
Our communities across Southern NSW experienced a lot of hardship for the greater good of the Basin.
The Basin Plan took water away from Southern Basin communities, forcing many farmers out of the industry.
But at the same time, this government allowed an exclusive club of Northern Basin irrigators to vastly increase their water extraction.
The more water they take up north – the less that flows down the river. Floodplain harvesting is a key reason why our farmers were on zero per cent allocation for two years during the drought.
That’s why I’m passionate about this issue. That’s why I fight to ensure floodplain harvesting is properly monitored and restricted to legal limits. Because if I don’t, southern farmers will pay the price.
Helen Dalton
Member for Murray
