Murray-Darling Water Recovery Strategy released

The Australian Government has released the Water Recovery Strategy - its proposal to deliver on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan on time and in full, with priority given to water-saving infrastructure investments.

Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment Simon Birmingham said the strategy will provide “greater certainty to businesses and communities throughout the Murray-Darling Basin”.

“We will pursue focused, strategic and targeted initiatives, focusing first on the opportunities for infrastructure investment and efficiency projects to deliver water for the environment,” Birmingham said.

“Over the next four years, we will prioritise water recovery through infrastructure investment over buybacks, with over $2.3 billion forecast to be spent on rural water use and infrastructure projects.

“Apart from benefits directly flowing to local contractors and suppliers, these projects are providing greater certainty to businesses and will help secure long-term viability and growth in the basin.”

Under the strategy, water buybacks will progress at a significantly slower pace and the focus of the relatively small amount of water purchasing will be on high-priority, strategically important purchases, including groundwater purchases in south-eastern Queensland.

“One of the Australian Government’s key priorities is to ensure that the Murray-Darling Basin remains Australia’s primary food bowl,” Birmingham said.

“We want to see our nation producing as much food and fibre as we can sustainably achieve for the Australian people and for export to the world.

“The plan demonstrates that, with full delivery of intended water savings via infrastructure projects and environmental works, the level of final buyback would be around 1300 GL, well within our promised 1500 GL cap.”

The plan has been criticised by NSW Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon, who said, “The move away from water buybacks to the less reliable and more costly program of infrastructure investment is a high-risk strategy.

“Infrastructure upgrades are two to three times more than the cost of buybacks per megalitre of water,” said Rhiannon. “Water buybacks allow for a more direct investment in the Murray-Darling, with a reliable way of measuring the water being returned.”

She added her disapproval of a buyback level of 1300 GL - an apparent downgrade on the 1500 GL cap.

“If the government are committed to meeting the targets of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, they should be investing in the most reliable and efficient means of doing so - and that would be maintaining a commitment to at least 1500 GL of water buybacks,” she said.

A copy of the strategy is available here.