Over recovery under the Murray Darling Basin Plan

This is branded content for Macquarie River Food and Fibre

Macquarie River Food and Fibre is calling on the federal government to engage with key stakeholders in central west NSW to commence the process of returning over recovered water to the Macquarie Valley.

MRFF members are food and fibre producers, and other local businesses, contributing to the economic, social and environmental health of the Macquarie Valley region.

The area includes the larger townships of Dubbo, Wellington, Narromine, Trangie, Warren, Cobar and many other smaller villages.

The industry body represents water licence holders who are both surface water and groundwater users in the Macquarie Valley catchment. MRFF said the Macquarie Valley had done its 'fair share and then some' under the Murray Darling Basin water recovery plan.

MRFF executive officer Michael Drum said the catchment area had been the subject of over recovery of water under the Murray Darling Basin Plan since 2014.

"The federal government has purchased more water from the Macquarie Valley than was needed as per Murray Darling Basin Plan targets," he said.

"The amount of water over recovered is 39-gigalitres as per the latest Murray Darling Basin Authority reporting.

"This is the equivalent of 16,000 olympic swimming pools and equates to approximately $90 million of lost production per annum just at the farm gate alone."

The impact affects not only producers, but local communities. From lost local employment, population decline in small regional towns, business closures and increased pressure on community resources like schools and medical services.

Mr Drum said local town water security is also jeopardised as seen in the last drought from Dubbo to Warren, Nyngan and Cobar.

Macquarie River Food and Fibre strongly opposes the re-purposing of any over recovered water under the Murray Darling Basin Plan for other environmental programs, such as the additional 450GL environmental recovery for which it was never intended.

"Use of Macquarie water for those programs is 'robbing Peter to pay Paul', unduly burdening Macquarie communities to cover for the government, who hasn't made any progress towards actual efficiency projects to recover the 450GL," Mr Drum said.

"Using WaterNSW usage data by entitlement in the Macquarie from 2011 to 2023, the Environment has consumed 88 percent of all water in the valley. Commercial users have only accessed 11 percent over the same period."

Mr Drum said community survival was on the line.

"We are falling way short of reaching the valley's SDL set for supporting food and fibre production, economic sustainability and ultimate community survival.

"It's hard to understand under these circumstances how the government can argue that over recovered water should not be returned.

"Any re-purposing of over recovered water would be water theft from our communities by the same federal government agencies claiming to protect against it."

Warren Shire Council mayor Milton Quigley said the impacts were critical.

"Why should our small communities unfairly shoulder the burden for other valleys in the Murray Darling Basin that have not contributed their fair share to the plan," he said.

"Why should our town's economic and social viability be put further at risk than could be reasonably expected. Why is a job in Warren or Narromine worth less than one somewhere else?"

Narromine Shire Council mayor Craig Davies said the basin plan set equitable targets based on sound socio-economic tests.

"Retention or repurposing over recovered water from the Macquarie by the federal government fails those tests on all measures," he said.

"The inequity of this situation must be resolved immediately to stop the decade long economic hardship felt by our communities."

This is branded content for Macquarie River Food and Fibre