- Northern Victorian Irrigators, submission to the Productivity Commission in 2006.
Founding president of the irrigator lobby group Northern Victorian Irrigators Dudley Bryant has welcomed the achievement of the 429 Gl of water savings under the Connections project and believes that the project could well have saved more.
He has witnessed the construction of a range of upgrades to remedy clogged up, leaking channels which have cost farmers, G-MW and the environment large amounts of wasted water.
“I remember one spur channel which was so bad the farmer would start the water down the spur at night and it would take till morning before his (Dethridge) wheel started turning.
“Now, he can start the water running and within half an hour he's got water flowing out his bays. It was that bad before they did the work.
“On that job they reckon he's saved about 15 to 20 Ml a year, l, but it would have to be closer to 100 Ml saved every year. It would take about 4 Ml just to fill the spur. So I think the savings, if anything, have been under-recorded.”
Mr Bryant said he had personally seen a large number of upgraded projects which had improved the efficiency of the channel networks.
“I'm extremely proud of the outcome. There has been problems along the way, but it's a lot better than we had.”
But he also has some concerns for the future, including the diminishing pool of water available for irrigators in the GMID and the demand from large corporate farms run as managed investment schemes down-stream.
The NVI group supported the Connections project, formerly known as the Foodbowl Modernisation Project, and faced criticism from some farmers who didn't want to see Goulburn River water being sent to Melbourne down the Sugarloaf pipeline, as part of the deal for the $1 billion.
