Plan to shrink lakes under Murray-Darling Basin Plan is 'environmental vandalism', whistleblower warns

The Murray-Darling will likely end up worse off under the Basin Plan, a senior Murray-Darling Basin Authority whistleblower has warned.

The Menindee system is made up by a chain of lakes.

David Bell, an experienced water planning expert, worked at the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) from March 2009 until his retirement as director on November last year.

In a statement to the Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission, Mr Bell paints a picture of the planning and implementation of the Basin Plan that was heavily influenced by the need to strike an agreement with "hostile states", vested interests and flawed science.

Read the ABC News story by Rebecca Puddy - “Plan to shrink lakes under Murray-Darling Basin Plan is 'environmental vandalism', whistleblower warns.”

Facing the water facts.

Shadow Water Minister,
Tony Burke.

The consequences of the 2016 flood flows should now make it blatantly obvious to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and even to Shadow Water Minister Tony Burke that the extra 450Gl of environmental water simply cannot be delivered with neutral or beneficial socio-economic impacts, nor can it be recovered mainly through on-farm efficiency measures, due to the vastly diminished critical mass of irrigation water left in the irrigation districts.

As Minister Joyce has stated, the reality is that sending an additional 450Gl down the river without hurting people cannot be done, and there is not ‘‘a hope in Hades’’ of recovering that water under the specified legal requirements.

As a result of major flooding in September-October 2016 in the Murrumbidgee, Murray and Mid Goulburn, flows to South Australia were of the volume or in excess of the volume being proposed by the MDBA under the Constraints Management Strategy — that is, more than 60000Ml/day for more than five weeks.

Read the Country News story - “Facing the water facts.”