Irrigators group hopeful conservative allocation figure won’t cause panic buying
Inflows into the Murray-Darling have not been enough to boost the fortunes of SA irrigators who are being warned to expect just a trickle from this season’s opening water allocation.
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The state’s irrigators are being warned they could start this water season on allocations as low as 2 per cent.
Environment and Water Minister David Speirs said the projected opening allocation is a very conservative starting point.
“Due to continuing dry conditions across much of the Basin, water flowing into the River Murray System in 2019-20 has been about one-third of the long-term average resulting in a low projected minimum opening allocation,” he said.
South Australian Murray Irrigators chairwoman Caren Martin said the 2 per cent figure was a shock.
“I’m surprised at the conservativeness of the figure,” she said.
“It’s the worst of worse case scenarios and I don’t think it’s an overly realistic figure.
“This figure is not good for the water market because it could cause panic buying.”
Mrs Martin said one positive for irrigators was a strong Bureau of Meteorology outlook for rainfall in the coming months.
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“The temporary water price has gone down throughout this season, and that’s usually a direct indication that people are optimistic of more rain,” she said.
This time last year, irrigators were told a potential worst case scenario was 14 per cent allocations. But, the time the 2019-20 water season opened last July allocations were at 31 per cent, rising to 100 per cent by November, despite last year being South Australia’s driest on record.