RURAL community Wee Waa has taken a public stand against the proposed water recovery from its district under the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) review.
Last Thursday, the ‘Saving Wee Waa’ Facebook page shared a short clip highlighting how the proposed review could affect the agricultural town.
Since then, it’s received over 29,000 views, 517 shares and 738 ‘likes’.
Namoi Water chief executive, Jon Marie Baker, Wee Waa, said the current review has proposed to recover 23,000 megalitres of water which would come from farms in and around the Wee Waa district.
Ms Baker said that was the third time the government had taken water from the district and the community had become frustrated by the lack of explanation about recovery.
“It’s senseless,” she said.
“At one of the review meetings, locals asked the authority what would be the environmental benefit achieved from the water taken from wee Waa and could it be physically delivered?”
“The authority conceded the water wasn’t able to be delivered, yet they wouldn’t change how they determine environmental water needs.”
It’s not just farming families concerned over the town’s future if they were to permanently lose the water.
Ms Baker said it was a whole town fight as local businesses, schools and families relied on it.
“We funded a regional economic model in 2012 and it estimated this decrease in water entitlements would cause the loss of 70 full time jobs and $38 million from the regional economy annually,” she said.
Ms Baker said stakeholders were concerned the MDBA was risking a community’s survival for hyper-theoretical environmental needs that wouldn’t achieve outcomes.
“We want the outcomes for the river and they can be achieved by installing fish ways, getting rid of carp and addressing cold water pollution,” she said.
“These solutions would mean no more water would have to be taken from Wee Waa.”
Local farmer Steve Carolan, “Waverley”, Wee Waa, said he couldn’t understand how the water would be better used elsewhere when a whole town’s survival depended on it.
“What’s it going to achieve? Here, the water keeps people in school and people in jobs,” Mr Carolan said.
MDBA executive director of environmental management Colin Mues said water recovered from the environment in the Namoi Valley would be used to improve the health of local rivers and floodplains.
“However the northern basin review is helping the MDBA to consider whether the Basin Plan settings could be changed,” he said.
Mr Mues said community feedback has been a crucial part of the review process and an important part of the evidence being considered.
The social, economic and environmental aspects of the triple bottom line play an equal role in the Murray Darling Basin Authority review and Mr Mues said community feedback would complement detailed socio-economic analysis on 21 communities in the Northern Basin, including Wee Waa.
State backs infrastructure
A DEPARTMENT of Primary Industries (DPI) Water spokesperson says any water further recovery in the Murray Darling Basin should be achieved through the investment of on-farm infrastructure.
Under the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) review, the Basin plan sets out recovery targets for states and it’s the Commonwealth’s responsibility to purchase any water to meet the targets of the basin plan.
Originally it was proposed 390 gigalitres of water would be taken from consumption and returned to the environment every year- which prompted the three year review currently in progress.
“The NSW government does not support the use of non strategic buy backs of water in meeting targets and has recommended that no water recovery should be undertaken until the outcomes of the MDBA's review of the Sustainable Diversion Limit adjustment package is known,” the spokesperson said.
“The timing of any water recovery is set out and agreed in the Basin Plan.”