A future with less water

The future of the Murray-Darling Basin relies on creating more wealth with less water.

The Commonwealth will soon be releasing a draft Basin Plan for the Murray-Darling Basin. This plan will set sustainable diversion limits, which define the level of water that can be taken from a water resource without compromising the health of key environmental assets and ecosystem functions.

The recently released Wentworth Group report, ''Sustainable Diversions in the Murray-Darling Basin'', analyses the environmental water needs of each of the 18 catchments across the Murray-Darling Basin. We assessed the economic impact of achieving the required reductions in diversions and outlined an approach to support communities in transitioning to a future with less water.

Our analysis suggests that there needs to be a further reduction of about 30 per cent in long-term average surface water extractions across the basin to give a high probability of achieving a healthy river system. All 18 catchments across the basin will need to make a contribution, but some will need to contribute more than others. This is because some catchments are more overallocated than others and also because the economic efficiency of water use in some catchments produces greater economic benefits than water used in others.

The economic modelling by the Australian National University suggests that the economic and social impacts of these reforms can be minimised if water is acquired from the least productive uses.

This modelling suggests that in most catchments, the required reduction is less than 10 per cent. However, in two catchments, the Murray and Murrumbidgee reductions might be significantly greater, in the order of 40 per cent and 65 per cent respectively.

The modelling also shows that if the water does come from the least productive uses, in most catchments the reduction in profits would be less than 3 per cent. In the Murray and Murrumbidgee catchments, while the reductions in profits are significant, they are significantly less than the size of the reductions in diversions 12 per cent in the Murray and 25 per cent in the Murrumbidgee.

15th June 2010 | The Canberra Times
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/opinion/editorial/general/a-future-with-less-water/1857998.aspx