Irrigators waiting on water plan detail

NSW Environment Minister Gabrielle Upton said on Saturday that up to 15,000 ML of water would be made available to irrigators on river systems including the Lachlan.

Lachlan Valley Water chair Tom Green said the organisation had not received any further information, but was putting together some proposed guidelines outlining irrigators’ hopes for that water.

Mr Green hopes the water will be made available at a fixed price, to prevent drought inflation, and as a percentage of licence holders’ allocation.

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It also needs to go to those who will use it to water stock or produce feed, rather than those who will sell it on.

Although it’s still unclear how much water could be released to irrigators, Mr Green is hoping for 10-20ML of the 99ML that is currently held in the Lachlan River system for the environment.

He says the availability of water within the next few weeks is critical if irrigators are to keep crops alive for cereal or hay production.

While there hasn’t been any general security allocation this year, Lachlan irrigators do have a collective 265,000ML of water held over from previous years.

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Growers’ situations vary greatly, Mr Green said, depending how much water they had in their account.

“There is crop getting water for feed grain and in the hope of making hay,” he said.

“There are crops that have had two waterings and will probably need another two.

“If people are going to salvage cereal crops, they need to be doing it now. It’s critical in the coming weeks.” 

Wyangala Dam was at 58 per cent of its capacity and falling according to Water NSW on Thursday.