Murray-Darling Basin deadline failure: Cost of SA’s 450GL up to $10.8 billion
South Australia may be demanding its 450GL, but it cannot be delivered by the June 2024 deadline, let alone pushed down the river.
Years of warnings that neither the recovery of an extra 450 gigalitres for South Australia under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, nor the removal of constraints to delivering it would be achieved by June 2024 have been reinforced by yet another Federal Government report.
The latest Review of the Water for the Environment Special Account warns just 60GL of the 450GL will be delivered by June 30, 2024, at a cost of $1.54 billion.
“Putting aside program and timing limitations, the estimated cost to recover the full 450GL through efficiency measures is between $3.4 billion and $10.8 billion,” the review panel found.
The panel also concluded that easing constraints to allow environmental water managers to get the 450GL, plus another 2000GL already recovered, down the Murray-Darling Basin’s river network to wetlands and out on to flood plains could not be delivered by the June 2024 deadline.
These projects involve modifying bridges or river crossings, changing river and storage operating rules or acquiring easements to flood private land adjoining rivers.
But the NSW Government has ruled out imposing compulsory flood easements on the more than 3000 landholders whose properties adjoin the Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers.
It’s a similar story in Victoria where the State Government has all but abandoned negotiations with Goulburn River landholders on flood easements.
The WESA panel concluded “(just) two of the six constraints projects could possibly be delivered by 30 June 2024, but it is not possible for the other four projects to be implemented by this date”.
It’s not the first time such warnings have been issued, with an independent expert panel commissioned by the NSW and Victorian Governments to look at constraints in 2019 concluding “continuing with the existing approach given the current community concerns, whilst maintaining the June 2024 deadline for completion, has a high chance of failure”.
While the WESA report was not released until today, it was handed to the former Coalition Government Minister Keith Pitt on December 20 last year.
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