Focus on the good ideas

WHAT are the environmental benefits of Water Minister Tanya Plibersek’s 450GL water buybacks? Where is this “the environment”?

For those of us who understand the geography of where our water goes, “the environment” seems to be where it all gets flushed out to sea through what was once an estuary, past the barrages in South Australia.

So what about Australian staple food production in a drought year if these buybacks occur and water is removed from our productive irrigation regions?

Where does this leave struggling city or town folk finding it difficult to put food on the table? It’s possible that plentiful, high-quality Australian-grown food will become an icon of the past.

As a friend of mine once reminded me, “This Murray-Darling Basin Plan is madness mate”.

Why is it that our politicians are so hell-bent on hanging all of us out to dry rather than creating win-win infrastructure solutions?

In our valley, we have the opportunity to utilise an existing, natural depression called Lake Coolah located in Narrandera Shire.

This area could be efficiently used to place water at the end of the irrigation season in June and then used to water crops in spring.

This would save air space in the existing dams for “environmental water” and allow Australian family farms to produce an income by growing food and fibre.

Other benefits of Lake Coolah include increased bird and wildlife habitat, reduced impact on the already high flows in the Murrumbidgee River due to the poor management of the “environmental flows”, and of course recreational and tourist values.

So what’s stopping this damn good idea? Water corporations and even government departments find it easier to trade water to the highest bidders than to deliver it to the environment or staple food crops that feed our people.

Supply and demand drives the price wars, which creates a sense of greed for corporate management despite having grower elected boards.

Government corruption and greed is another, with many not declaring water interests and being able to have their cake and eat it too.

This greed only makes it hard for the rest of us struggling to survive, and hurts all of us in the longer term. I am sure if all parties were able to focus on the damn good ideas like this one then surely we could all be productive.

Tanya Ginns

Murrami, NSW