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Basin storages low despite recent rainfall

By Country News

Apr 8, 2020

The Murray-Darling Basin Authority says water storage levels still reflect a dire situation, despite recent rainfall.

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A wet start to autumn brought smiles to farmers in the Murray-Darling Basin, but storages remain at low levels.The past couple of weeks had widespread and persistent rainfall across the basin, with areas in the south recording the heaviest falls, particularly Murray River tributaries, including the Kiewa and Goulburn rivers.

Overall basin storage levels are currently at 13 per cent in the north and 33 per cent in the south, which is steady since the previous fortnightly update.

Only Menindee Lakes showed a large increase, up seven per cent to 12 per cent, with smaller gains at Blowering Dam, up four per cent to 45 per cent.

MDBA river management executive director Andrew Reynolds said the rain was a welcome change after years of extreme drought, but it had not had a significant impact.“The picture of the last 36 months is that virtually the entire basin has had below-average or record-low rainfall overall, so making up for that will take a lot more rain,” he said.Despite this, Mr Reynolds celebrated the first flows into Menindee Lakes for years.“Between 390 and 420 gigalitres of water is estimated to flow into the lakes over the coming weeks, and we’ve already had enough for WaterNSW to restart flows to the lower Darling.“This is great news for locals and farmers who have long-awaited a reprieve from years of drought.“It’s also great for the environment, and as these flows reconnect refuge pools along the way, we’ll see better outcomes for native fish populations and a lessening of some of the water quality issues we’ve had to date.”

The drought update is available on the MDBA website at: www.mdba.gov.au/droughtupdate