The ‘report card’ repeats earlier acknowledgements that there is slow progress on reaching the 450 Gl of ‘up-water’ and notes that only one of the 20 water resource plans in NSW has been completed.
In its section on feedback from the community, the report notes the community knows that key elements of the basin plan will not be delivered on time and are calling for a clear plan to manage incomplete implementation.
“Views on how to respond are widely divergent — many are concerned about a return to water buybacks and the consequent impacts on their communities,” the report said.
“Others have highlighted that water recovered through infrastructure is more expensive than purchasing on the open market, and view buybacks as the only way to get the water needed to sustain the basin.”
Buybacks are universally opposed by the Victorian Government, irrigation and farm lobby groups, as well as most northern Victorian development groups.
During a visit to the NSW Riverina and northern Victoria last week, Murray-Darling Basin Authority chief executive officer Andrew McConville did not identify specific groups calling for buybacks but reiterated that there were a range of views around the table about how much and how the water should be recovered.
Under the water efficiency program, the Federal Government has set aside $1.5 billion to recover the 450 Gl of water by 2024.
The basin plan requires that efficiency measures meet agreed criteria to ensure they have neutral or positive socio-economic outcomes for basin communities.
The report found achieving the basin plan’s water recovery target was close to completion, with about 98 per cent of the surface water and 92 per cent of the groundwater targets recovered as at April 30.
While the total amount of water recovered across the basin is higher than the overall target of 2075 Gl a year, there were local and shared water recovery targets in the basin plan that must still be met at the catchment scale.
Mr McConville, who is five weeks into the job, said the report card showed critical elements — which would benefit basin communities and the rivers, wetlands and floodplains — were well behind.
“What the plan has achieved to date is remarkable, but we are now in the last miles of a long, hard marathon and governments need to up their pace and finish what they started 10 years ago,” Mr McConville said.
“The SDL Adjustment Mechanism water saving projects in the southern basin are also slipping behind.
“With less than two years before their deadline, the seven at-risk state projects require concerted effort by basin states if they are to deliver the expected reduction in water recovery for irrigation communities.
“Delivery of up to 450 Gl through efficiency measures has also remained stubbornly on ‘red’ on the report card dial.
“The Water for the Environment Special Account report, tabled in parliament recently, spells out in graphic detail the mammoth task ahead to deliver the 450 Gl and constraints.
“We can already see what great benefits can be achieved by returning water to the river environment, with 2100 Gl in entitlements secured since the start of the basin plan.
“These benefits have been evident through the hard drought years and again in the wet times that we’re experiencing now, with impressive bird breeding and fish migration under way.”