FURIOUS irrigators across the region have demanded the Murray Darling Basin Plan be immediately frozen amid fears it is doing irreparable damage to communities.
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The controversial plan, which sparked wild protests in Griffith in 2010 and 2012, has sent shockwaves through irrigation towns, stripping confidence from business and real estate markets.
Irrigator groups have called on the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) to pause the plan, which they claim is based on flawed science and puts the environment ahead of livelihoods.
Already, the plan has recovered more than 1950 gigalitres of its 2750 gigalitre target, with about 27 per cent of Murray Irrigation’s entitlement alone reclaimed.
Irrigator lobby group, Speak Up, has called on the federal government to stop the plan in its tracks before more damage is done.
“We think they’ve got enough water to achieve what they want to,” Speak Up spokeswoman and Deniliquin rice farmer Shelley Scoullar said.
“We can’t see how they can get anymore water down the system without causing third party impacts. We’re already seeing environmental damage from the high level of environmental flows – things like bank erosion and trees falling in rivers.
“These are things that farmers who have on the river for generations have never seen.”
She said the plan had “ripped the heart” out of irrigation communities.
“Our community relies on irrigation and when you take 27 per cent of anyone’s business resource, it’s going to have an impact,” she said.
“When you’re not producing as much rice, wheat and barley, you have less farmers, less truck drivers, less auxiliary industries.”
The plan has major party bilateral support and aims to take water from farmers and deliver it to the ailing lower lakes in South Australiaand elsewhere.
An MDBA spokeswoman rejected calls to freeze the plan, saying it was a matter for government and could have serious ramifications.
“Pausing the plan would be a decision for governments, not the MDBA,” she said.
“It’s worth noting a pause could affect our social and economic work, delay millions of dollars of local investment in the basin and put off this year’s opportunity to change the target of 2750 gigalitres of water being returned to the environment.
“It’s important we look after the river system so it can support industries and communities into the future.
“The agreed share of water for the environment reflects a careful balance of community, industry and government feedback, social and economic analysis, scientific knowledge and an understanding of river constraints.”
