The Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) has flagged it will do further work on the impact of the Murray Darling Basin Plan.
An MDBA spokeswoman said the authority acknowledged some Basin communities had felt the impacts of water recovery more than others.
But she said almost all the water recovery required under the Plan had now been achieved.
More than 2100 gigalitres (GL) of water had now been recovered for the environmental health of the river system.
“That’s more than 2100 GL of water that will be delivered back to the environment every year, on average,” the spokeswoman said.
The Plan was just one of a number of factors, affecting socio-economic outcomes in Basin communities.
‘We are undertaking more detailed work to better understand the impacts of the Basin Plan on communities,” the spokeswoman said.
“The community profiles released earlier this year will be updated to describe and separate out the effects of the Basin Plan from the other drivers of change affecting those communities.
“We will continue to use the best available science, evidence, research and local knowledge to oversee the implementation of the Basin Plan and provide advice to governments to help roll it out in a way that gives the best possible balance of social, economic and environmental outcomes.”
The spokeswoman said last year’s five-year evaluation showed the MDBA there were good early signs that as work on the plan continued, significant lasting and system-wide benefits would be seen.
State and Commonwealth governments had been working on Sustainable Diversion Limits (SDL’s), with the MDBA, for five years.
“We have determined that through a package of projects we can deliver better environmental outcomes while keeping 605GL more water in productive use,” the spokeswoman said.
“Through this process, the MDBA provided technical advice to state governments on proposed constraint measures.
“These projects involve relaxing constraints on rivers to better deliver water.
The spokeswoman said Constraints projects could include changes to physical features, such as crossings and bridges, as well as river practices and rules.
“We acknowledge that communities are concerned about these projects, and the effect on low-lying floodplains.”
State governments had committed to key principles for delivering constraint measures:
- extensive community consultation including identifying the most effective way to mitigate adverse impacts
- funding infrastructure to ensure that third-party impacts of proposed flows are mitigated
- no managed flows at increased levels to occur until all necessary works are complete, noting that it may be possible to have a staged relaxation of constraints.
Basin state governments have until 2024 to implement the projects.
“Many of the projects are in their infancy and will need substantial community input to deliver.
“The MDBA will continue to play a key role in monitoring the integrity of SDL’s and the operation of the adjustment mechanism, reporting regularly to ensure transparency.”
Federal Water Minister David Littleproud said he remained committed to the delivery of the Murray Darling Basin Plan that all Basin Governments signed onto in 2012.
