Concern over SDLs

AS A member of the group of concerned irrigators and community members reviewing the sustainable diversion limits (SDLs) process, I thought it timely and appropriate to advise the river users of progress on this matter so far.

The group is concerned that equity of the shared resource break-up may be lost without the environment being challenged under the same guidelines.
While I strongly support the need for healthy rivers system, I also believe government initiatives should be able to recover a sizeable amount of water from irrigators who either wish to exit their industry, or from those who wish to sell all or part of their water allocation to provide water for the environment.
This would leave those irrigators wishing to stay in the food production and other irrigation industries to have some real certainty for their future rather than the confusion that is at present.
As South Australian irrigators have already shown efficiency over the years, limited savings would be achieved by infrastructure upgrading.
The large sums of money that have been allocated for the upgrade efficiency of irrigation systems by the Federal Government will by no means be able to provide the amount of buy-back water needed for the environment.
The group questions whether those funds should be reallocated to enhance the water buy-back scheme which has had some success and also counts towards the SDL targets.
The impact of the current programs is clearly visible throughout the South Australian river irrigation area and must be addressed before the damage is irreversible to our communities.
GRAHAM McINNESS
Waikerie