ENVIRONMENT and Water Minister David Speirs has stated there will be no reductions to water licences in the MacDonnell and Joanna hundreds which were labelled as “high risk” areas in a recent independent scientific study.
Instead, the minister has advised the Natural Resources Management South East Board to meet with stakeholders to determine appropriate action forward.
Mr Speirs said although a recently conducted assessment determined the two areas as high risk, reductions to water allocations will not be implemented in MacDonnell and Joanna.
He lambasted a story published in The Border Watch on Friday, January 24 – which claimed cuts had been flouted by the government – as “misleading”.
A review of water allocation reductions under the government’s plan found “catastrophic consequences to groundwater dependent ecosystem values… were possible a result of increased fluctuations in groundwater levels attributed to summer pumping for irrigation and high levels of irrigation and use.”
While the findings concerned some Limestone Coast farmers – -particularly in the Coles region with reductions of up to 10pc slated – the government each management area needed to be fewed in isolation.
The minister said last week’s article failed to acknowledge 53 management areas remain low or medium risk and will not undergo reductions.
“As a result of the updated assessment, the risk has reduced in areas that underwent reductions in 2016 – Short, Frances, Hynam East, Zone 3A and Zone 5A,” he said.
In 2018, the State Government halted a plan to reduce the water allocations of around 470 water licence holders in the lower Limestone Coast.
Introduced by the Weatherill Government, the plan outlined cuts to take place in 2018, 2020 and 2022, with reductions undertaken in two areas in July 2016.
Mr Speirs aid the story focused “one small negative” of a recent science review, rather than the positive outcomes for some Limestone Coast producers since reductions in water allocations were put on hold pending further studies.
“Many farmers raised concerns about these impending cuts and impacts to primary production in the South East, believing they were not based on the most robust and timely science,” Mr Speirs said.
