NSW irrigators demand major change to water allocation system

While super computers track water flows instantly, farmers must wait a month between updates as their drought-stressed crops hang in the balance.

Southern NSW irrigators are calling for weekly water allocation updates as they try to juggle drought-stressed crops after a dry winter.

And while summer cropping prospects will be vastly reduced due to the initial low water announcements, many irrigators are only focused on the crops they already have in the ground.

The lag in announcing increased irrigation allocations could cost farmers dearly according to Mayrung, NSW, irrigator Laurie Beer.

Mr Beer wants allocations to more accurately reflect inflows into dams, and said the latest announcement had not done that.

“After waiting with anticipation for the water allocation update on August 15, imagine the frustration of irrigators to be only given an increase of 1 per cent and being told it was based on inflows up to the end of July,” Mr Beer said.

“With automatic flow monitoring and super computers, what reason would there be for not giving an up-to-date indication of water availability?”

Mr Beer said there were millions of dollars worth of agricultural production at risk of serious yield reduction in terms of winter crops, which could be averted if irrigators knew what water would be available based on up-to-date inflows into dams.

“I believe it is imperative that allocation announcements are made weekly on up-to-date information, particularly in the spring months when inflows are generally quite high,” he said.

“We need to push for the allocation announcements to be brought into the 21st century, and made regularly on current storage information.”

A spokesman for the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water said water allocation statements were released fortnightly and “sometimes more frequently if required”.

“It is unlikely allocations will see major changes week-to-week, except during periods of extreme weather,” the spokesman said.

“Each water allocation statement goes through extensive quality assurance and scrutiny, requiring significant time and expertise.”

The spokesman said water allocation statements reflected availability three to four working days before they were published and those statements included the date the data was considered.

The most recent water allocation update lifted general security water allocations for NSW Murray irrigators to just 3 per cent, while Murrumbidgee general security irrigators have a 19 per cent and an average carry-over of 16 per cent.

Murray Irrigation will hold seasonal outlook briefings next week at Deniliquin, Wakool and Finley to help irrigators deal with the allocations.

As at Tuesday, Hume Dam was 52 per cent of capacity, while Dartmouth was 68 per cent full.

A year ago, the dams were 73 per cent and 95 per cent respectively.