Country Today - October 21st

It's National Water Week this week, so what better time to contemplate where we've come with our water reform.

The National Irrigators Council's released a report today that reveals just 23% of Murray-Darling Basin water is diverted.

Council CEO Zara Lewin joins us.

Welcome back to Country Today.

How was this report collated?

The report was collated from actually using data from the National Water water account from the Bureau of Meteorology.

So they've been collecting data in the basin now since 2010.

And so we accessed data that was available on the website and then asked them for some additional data that they had back to 2010.

And then we've used that to group water between water used for consumptive purposes or people, whether that's agriculture and communities and industry, and then understand how much water has been recovered for the environment through purchases under the basin plan and then all the other water that's left not diverted and largely left in our rivers for a range of purposes but benefiting the environment as well.

Do we know what the water diversion was like before the buyback started with the implementation of the basin plan?

Yes we've presented the data on a year by year basis and then averaged that over that so We've definitely seen in some years, and this reflects water availability too, diversions or use by consumptive users can be a little bit higher.

So some years they're up to about 28%, but definitely since the basin plan has come into play and we've seen additional water be recovered, we've seen that drop to much lower levels on a proportion basis.

You might be aware and your listeners might be aware, we often use water the numbers historically around the basin diversions, which was the 28% and 72% number, they were based on long-term averages and the likely reform volumes that would happen through the basin plan.

What this report does is actually turn what is modelled numbers into actuals and go back what was actually used versus what was actually in the river at the time.

And so it's It's more of a current version and an update to that number.

And you're not surprised when you're saying this is enough water for the environment?

Well, I think you've got to look at the question of balance and the purpose of the Basin Plan was about really managing what was perceived to be the issue at the time, which was over allocation.

And so now 30 years of reform have led us to this point of understanding that more than three quarters of water within the basin is largely left in rivers or flowing onto wetlands or flood plains or down to the lower lakes.

And so we've gotta bring that all together and then look at today's issues.

And the evidence also from the MDBA is showing that more water isn't addressing some of the issues we've got around the basin.

And so for us, that's really leading to the question is more water can't address carp, for example, more water cannot address fish movement in the basin and so we've got to start looking at those issues directly rather than just focusing on the balance question because we really think we've got there.

There is a basin plan review underway.

What would you like to see happen?

Well, we want to see this as part of the information that informs that review and we want to have the conversation that needs to be had which is about understanding what today's issues are and then what are those potential solutions.

And I think that's where we get to having the question of, it's not about balance anymore, it's actually about how we can use the water that we've got, which is nearly, you know, as we say, 77% of the water available in the system is largely for the environment.