AN $80 million project to deliver environmental water to more than 17,000 hectares of forest has been completed at Torrumbarry, Victoria, a day after a new report found investment in on-farm water efficiency projects leads to wider economic, social and environmental benefits than buybacks.
The report, released on Tuesday by Dairy Australia, showed that on-farm water efficiency programs result in longer lasting and more effective benefits to the farm and the region, confirming the National Farmers’ Federation's (NFF) long-held view that water purchases should be the option of last resort.
NFF president Duncan Fraser said, “There is a way to make sure that the best interests of both farmers and the environment are taken care of, and it’s through farmers and government co-investing in on-farm water efficiency – not through water buybacks.”
“The NFF has been calling for a greater focus on government investment in on-farm water initiatives in the Murray-Darling Basin for some time, and this report shows the benefits that such programs have,” Mr Fraser said.
The completion of the Koondrook–Perricoota Forest project - part of the Environmental Works and Measures Program, funded jointly by the Commonwealth, New South Wales, Victorian, South Australian and ACT governments under The Living Murray program – was announced by Federal Minister for Water Mark Butler and NSW Minister for Primary Industries Katrina Hodgkinson on Wednesday.
Ms Hodgkinson officially commissioned the works at Torrumbarry, joined by local member John Williams MP.
The major infrastructure project, located on the River Murray between Echuca/Moama and Barham, involves a series of channels and regulators and included the construction of a 3.8-kilometre inlet channel and a 43km series of levees and control regulators to enable water to be diverted into the creek system that feeds and drains the forest, while protecting the surrounding farmland from artificial flooding.
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