The South Australian Government has submitted its formal response as part of the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council’s feedback on the revised draft Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

 

State Minister for Water and the River Murray, Paul Caica, acknowledged that while some progress had been made in addressing under allocation, he argued that upstream states must accept responsibility for over-allocation.

 

“Independent scientific analysis has confirmed that the 2,750 billion litres the plan proposes to return to the river will not be enough yet upstream states are still trying to drive that number down,” Mr Caica said.

 

“On top of that they refuse to accept that they should bear the burden of returning the river to health despite continuing to allocate extra water from the river after SA capped its take in 1969.

 

“That’s why our response through the Ministerial Council calls for the Basin Plan to be consistent with the Water Act and to recognise our State’s responsible use of water from the River.”

 

Mr Caica said that while the State Government is more than willing to explore the option of an adjustment mechanism, more must be done to ensure the environmental health of the river system.

 

“The rigorous scientific analysis that we have conducted shows the 2750 GL proposed in the draft Basin Plan won’t achieve that,” Mr Caica said.

 

“Any apportionment of a water recovery target to South Australia must recognise our exemplary management of water resources and the investment our irrigators have made in irrigation efficiencies, as well as the fact a significant amount of our state’s water use is for critical human needs.”

 

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