It's official and there's no surprise - the Department of Industry has announced low or no water allocations for the major NSW rivers as the drought intensifies.
The department said water sources subject to temporary water restrictions for carry-over water "include Upper and Lower Namoi, NSW Border Rivers, Lachlan and Macquarie. The current water restriction in the Lower Darling has been extended and amended".
The NSW Irrigators Council says irrigators in the south of NSW are paying for South Australia not actually being affected by the drought as their 1850 gigalitres of annual water delivery under the Murray-Darling Basin agreement remains untouched, despite many saying the situation is worse than the millenium drought.
The department said "all high security and remaining general security account water in the Murrumbidgee and NSW Murray rivers are assured", it said, although this is believed to pertain just to carryover general security water. Irrigators will still see a full Murray River pass by them with no access - also due to capacity issues at the Barmah Choke.
NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment water drought co-ordinator Michael Wrathall said the worsening drought has seen record low inflows to several inland NSW river valleys.
"Over the last two years, many rivers have dropped to their lowest flows since records began over 100 years ago. In some valleys, especially in the Northern Basin, the water is simply not there to deliver to farmers, irrigators and industry," he said.
Luke Simpkins, NSW Irrigators Council, said the department's announcement was a reflection of how bad the drought was, but he said South Australia was not feeling the effects.
"They've got a good deal (SA)," he said. "In NSW we have to live with the drought, but in South Australia they don't have to."
The SA government said current high security allocations were 31 per cent, but there was a 90pc likelihood the allocations would increase to at least 91pc and an 85pc chance of increasing to 100pc.