Dedicated to long haul

To date, 272 gigalitres of water has been recovered from consumptive use in the Northern Basin under recommendations made by the Murray Darling Basin Authority.

Another 48GL is still yet to be recovered to reach the water recovery target of 320GL.

With 35GL  of water still to be recovered from the Condamine-Balonne area, the task force visited Dirranbandi to discuss recovery options.

Local irrigator and Smartrivers chairman, a community sponsored river monitoring program, Frank Deshon said any more water buybacks would be devastating for local irrigators, so any further water recovery necessary should be done through water use efficiency measures.

Implementing on farm efficiency methods could mean extra effort for farmers but Mr Deshon said any irrigators left in the area were there for the long haul.

“People who wanted to get out during this process have already exited the scene,” he said.

“Basically anyone left with water entitlements are here for the long term.”

Mr Deshon said irrigators told the taskforce it should use water already recovered, in conjunction with environment-boosting works such as riparian repair or fish ladders, to increase river health as opposed to further buybacks.

With 65Gl already gone from the Condamine-Balonne region, Mr Deshon said irrigators feared the taskforce hadn’t properly monitored the value of what that water has given the environment.

“They’ve recovered this water to date but haven’t been out here over the last two years to asses the value of what’s already been recovered,” he said.

“They also haven’t used the recovered water in conjunction with any toolbox methods.”

St George Council also had a meeting with the taskforce to discuss how towns so dependent on irrigation, such as Dirranbandi, were going to move forward with potential further water recovery.

St George Deputy Mayor, Fiona Gaske said they were extremely disappointed more buybacks were still on the table, especially since Dirranbandi and St George were already negatively impacted by water recovery.

She was concerned that to date government water efficiency projects had only recovered small amounts of water.

“Even if there was funding for more efficiency programs, a large component of the 35GL (recovery target) would most likely have to come from buybacks and that’s not an acceptable option for the lower Balonne.”

The majority of water recovered from the Condamine-Balonne area has been taken from the lower part of the catchment. Councillor Gaske said they asked the taskforce to look at options of recovering water from further upstream.

Councillor Gaske said they also asked the taskforce what assistance could be provided to towns such as Dirranbandi, to cope with what had been a challenging economic transition.

“Dirranbandi is solely reliant on cotton and if they take that productive water and the ability to produce, what will the community do?” She said.

“We told the taskforce we didn’t want them to make it worse and they had to help make it better.”

Department of Agriculture and Water Resources Taskforce head of water Paul Morris said although buybacks weren’t off the table, the taskforce was aware they weren’t a favourable option for the community.

Mr Morris said the taskforce wants to hear ideas from communities affected by water recovery on how to achieve sustainable social and economic goals.

“If some short term assistance will lead to long term improvement we’d encourage it, but for the most part we want to make sure if the government were to do anything for these regions, it would help them in the long term,” he said.

The biggest concern for growers and the Dirranbandi community now, according to Mr Deshon, was the uncertainty leading up to 2019, when the full water recovery target will take effect.

“We just don’t know what the next move is. It’s the biggest burden over our heads at the moment.”

Macquarie Valley irrigators have echoed Dirranbandi’s concerns, launching a campaign highlighting the negative impacts the Murray Darling Basin Plan has had on the region .

With 83GL of water recovered from the Macquarie Valley so far, locals are concerned about job loss and social impacts on towns within the valley.

Macquarie River Food and Fibre Chairman Michael Egan said the Basin Plan had been flawed from the beginning, having a detrimental impact on local businesses and towns.

“We’re encouraging the local community to get behind the campaign, and build the case for change,” he said.

“This is not just about irrigators, but everyone from local shop owners to teachers and students who are seeing school numbers dwindle.”