The Conservation Council of South Australia represents around 60 environment and conservation organisations in our state. We advocate for the implementation in full of the Murray Darling Basin Plan.
The Basin Plan was a historic achievement that heralded a new era of cooperation between Basin states to restore the Murray Darling river system to health and ensure sustainable levels of water extraction.
Sadly, in the few short years since the Basin Plan was signed, we are seeing considerable undermining and weakening of the Plan, which threatens its ability to meet the objectives of the Water Act 2007.
We object to any reduction in environmental water return, as the Plan itself represented a significant compromise position. Modelling conducted for the development of the Basin Plan showed that 7600 GL would be the ideal volume of water recovery to truly restore the Basin to a resilient state of long term health. The Basin Plan legislated water recovery of less than half this amount, and with these proposed amendments, now even that is under threat.
We therefore strongly oppose the proposed amendments to the Basin Plan.