They were in disbelief when they recently attended a briefing session with the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s director of river operations Andrew Reynolds.
Berrigan farmer Graeme Pyle, a long-time advocate for effective water measuring across the entire Basin, said he was ‘‘absolutely staggered’’ at the admission by Mr Reynolds that total water volumes which flow down the Murray River are only measured to ‘plus or minus 20 per cent’.
‘‘On four million megalitres that could be a difference of 800,000 megalitres, and that’s a massive amount of water which is not accounted for.
‘‘He also admitted to a rolling slush fund, or volume of water, identified after the water year which may be an additional 300,000 megalitres.
‘‘So is it any wonder we don’t have any water here in the Murray Irrigation region,’’ Mr Pyle said.
He added there were no excuses for poor water measurement in the 21st century, with instruments available to measure and transmit volumes in real time to anywhere in the world at plus or minus five per cent.
‘‘You cannot manage what you do not measure, and it is clear the MDBA is not efficiently managing our precious water resources. We must highlight these inadequacies, because if we don’t the politicians and bureaucrats in ‘water world’ are none the wiser,’’ Mr Pyle said.
The chair of Southern Riverina Irrigators, Chris Brooks, also attended the MDBA briefing and was disappointed with what he heard about the MDBA’s river management.
‘‘They do not appear to take responsibility or be accountable for losses or damage to either the environment or our economies.
‘‘For the MDBA, it’s simply a matter of following the rules and sending huge volumes downstream, regardless of the consequences.
‘‘There has been an issue for a long time about the MDBA’s refusal to acknowledge negative impacts of the Basin Plan and how it is implemented, and this is another example,’’ Mr Brooks said.
He added he would be seeking further advice on how to get improvements in the efficiency of water use and flows, but in the interim he believed it was a positive that Mr Reynolds and the MDBA have accepted that:
●The volume of the natural constraint at the Barmah Choke was less than 8,000 megalitres/day.
●The flow rate was above 9,500 megalitres/day as indicated in his report, and often closer to 14,000 meg/day, which was a loss of six gigalitres a day.
●The flows above 9,500 meg/day occurred for a period of at least 141 days.
●This equates to an additional loss to the MIL region of 846,000 megalitres.
‘‘I indicated this was about $400 million worth of productive water from our region, lost by the MDBA to supply downstream users who were not responsible for any losses and could, with the stroke of a pen, transfer their ownership back up-river from Lake Victoria to Dartmouth Dam.
‘‘I find this an unacceptable situation that must be rectified, in the name of common-sense, protecting our communities and maximising the available water instead of wasting it.
‘‘I also find it incredible that the river operations manual for the MDBA does not mention ‘efficient operation’ in the top three priorities of its ‘objectives and outcomes’, and that ‘caring for the environment’ is also not included in these priorities,’’ Mr Brooks said.
Mr Brooks said he did not believe the MDBA had empathy for the undue stress that was being inflicted on our region.
‘‘We are in the present crisis through a combination of pathetic decision-making and careless actions, coupled with a lack of accurate measurement and abysmal accounting of such a precious resource.
‘‘I believe these inadequacies must be condemned and challenged via every possible channel if we are to ever bring some sanity back into the system that will be sustainable for both the economy and the environment,’’ Mr Brooks said.
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