MURRAMI farmer Debbie Buller remains uncertain that 2017 will bring any “real change” to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, while the authority appeared to still be “twittering and tweating around”.
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Mrs Buller said the authority appeared to still be using social media regularly, without achieving firm results.
“The Water Act is now 10 years-old in 2017,” she said.
“I don’t think much is going to change. They need to undertake a proper stock take of the pros and cons of the plan. We still don’t know if it’s having any sort of good impact on the triple-bottom-line.”
Her assessment comes as the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) announces its three goals set down for completion in 2017.
The first is for constraints projects to manage the system being rolled out, with the second for sustainable diversion limits (SDLs) to be determined.
Under the plan, SDLs are the maximum amount of water that can be taken for consumptive use and will take effect in 2019.
This third aim of the MDBA in 2017 is to undertake an “interim evaluation” of the plan. The interim evaluation will review the social, economic and environmental effectiveness of the Basin Plan.
According to the MDBA, planning for the evaluation has already started and some studies are underway.
In 2016 the authority also undertook a Northern Review as part of the plan and has discussed a similar situation for the south, which includes Leeton shire.
The community is currently able to provide feedback to the MDBA on the changes that are proposed to the plan as a result of the Northern Review.
MDBA chief executive officer Phillip Glyde said it was important the full range of views from communities were heard.
“It is imperative people who make a submission put forward any new information that may not have been considered in setting the proposed amendment,” he said. The MDBA will hold an information session in Leeton on January 25 at the Roxy Theatre to discuss the amendments.
“These southern basin meetings are a chance for us to reassure people in the southern basin that the proposed changes in the north will not impact water entitlement holders in the south,” Mr Glyde said.
He said now the socio-economic work for the Northern Basin Review was complete, the MDBA was considering how similar analyses might be done in the southern basin. However, Mrs Buller said more still needed to be done to ensure everyone was on the same page.
“The biggest issue we seem to have is people at all levels continue to separate agriculture and the environment.”
