Last week NSW Irrigator's Council chief executive, Doug Miell, said he feared the property rights of irrigators may be "trashed" under the new $10 billion plan for water.
The plan is perhaps little more than a grab for water at a time when irrigators are at their most vulnerable following years of drought.
But the Federal Government plans to enter the water market and buy water entitlements in the Murray-Darling Basin, not just take them, so property rights are unlikely to be "trashed" as such.
The plan involves $3 billion to buy water entitlements which some brokers estimate will deliver about 3,600 gigalitres of water entitlement.
Total inflow to the Basin historically has been in the order of 24,000 gigalitres with just under half this amount available for irrigation.
So, 3,600 gigalitres represents about a third of the water historically available for irrigation in an average year -- a huge amount.
Not surprisingly, Australian Conservation Foundation executive director, Don Henry, has welcomed the plan describing it as, "a good plan with adequate funding to do the job".
Indeed, Mr Henry has campaigned for years against irrigation and for increased environmental flows.
Just a few years ago there was an outcry from irrigators when it was proposed 1,500 gigalitres be given back to the environment under "The Living Murray Initiative". But remarkably while irrigators now potentially going to lose more than twice this amount, there has been hardly a murmur from them.
Of course, if the worst predictions from the climate change doomsayers come true, and for example, inflows are permanently reduced by up to 48 percent, then many irrigators will be better off having off-loaded their entitlements -- entitlements that under such a scenario would never deliver much water.
But if the current drought is just a part of the natural cycle and wet seasons return with the weakening of the El Nino then this new $10 billion dollar plan is likely to result in a significant redistribution of water within the Murray-Darling Basin.
If environmental flows are increased by as much as 3,600 gigalitres, floodplain graziers benefit, particularly those in places like the Macquarie Marshes where wetlands are used to fatten cattle.
There is also provision under the new plan to dig a new channel to by pass the Barmah Choke and get water more efficiently from the Hume Dam to the Riverland and Sunraysia. This may benefit the extensive new plantings of perennial tree crops.
The plan also sets aside $6 billion dollars to modernise irrigation infrastructure with the government expecting irrigators to contribute $750 million and perhaps install more lateral sprays and centre pivot irrigation gear or drip systems.
The Prime Minister, John Howard, has described the new plan as the biggest single infrastructure investment in water.
It's certainly a big plan featuring a lot of government intervention to rearrange things in the Murray-Darling Basin.
There will be some winner and some losers, with a lot of water entitlement likely to be sold rather than "trashed".
But whether this entitlement ever delivers any water will depend on whether it rains.
ADVERTISEMENT
No comments:
Post a Comment