PRESIDENT'S Column

By Gary Sansom

President

03 Dec 2009 Sustainable diversion limits for the Murray Darling Basin Plan

The Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) has recently released a paper which examines the issues that will be considered in setting sustainable diversion limits (SDLs) for the Basin Plan. A draft of the plan is expected to be released in mid-2010 and finalised the following year. Sustainable diversion limits are enforceable limits on the quantities of surface water and groundwater that can be taken from Basin catchments for use by farmers, towns and industries to achieve key environmental outcomes in all parts of the Basin. When the Queensland Government’s water resource plans for each of the Queensland Murray-Darling catchments are reviewed in 2014 they must comply with the Basin Plan and these SDLs.

The paper broadly examines a number of issues the Authority will address in setting these limits. However, the document tells irrigators very little about how these limits will impact on current allocations of water for irrigation provided for by their existing catchment water resource plans. Queensland Farmers’ Federation (QFF) wants an opportunity to examine in more detail how the Authority intends to set these limits and in particular, how well the existing water resource plans have addressed the issues of importance in setting these SDLs.

An important issue will be how the Authority’s assessment of environmental water requirements compares with the environmental flow provisions in the existing catchment water resource plans. Also the SDLs are to include limits on water interception activities such as the trapping of overland flows. It will be important to clarify what the Authority assesses are significant interception activities and how this compares with the regulation of the take of overland flow in the existing water resource plans. Other issues of interest to QFF include the impacts of the SDLs on irrigation communities and how the connection between surface and groundwater resources will be addressed given that water resource planning for groundwater in the Queensland Murray Darling catchments has not been initiated. The implications of using river system models to develop the SDLs should also be examined in some detail.

QFF has already raised concerns that the key industry and local irrigator representatives will disengage if there are not opportunities to provide input on key issues such as the SDLs well prior to the release of the draft Basin Plan. QFF will face a uphill battle trying to develop a constructive response from our irrigation membership following the release of the draft plan if our irrigation communities are not able to engage with the Authority to develop a clear understanding how the issues critical to the preparation of the draft plan have been addressed. The more surprises there are with the release of the draft plan the more difficult it will be to achieve constructive feedback and engagement to achieve effective implementation of the plan in the Queensland MDB catchments.

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