Add CategoryWater for the environments of the Murray River, Lower Lakes and Coorong is scarce because the basin is “very dry”, with half the usual flows to SA expected from July 1.
Opposition Environment spokeswoman Susan Close found the disturbing figures in the budget papers.
Environmental water flows were 1175 gigalitres in 2017-18, 800GL in 2018-19 and projected to drop to a “dismal” 500GL next financial year.
“While drought restricts flows, it is the excessive and wasteful use of water upstream that is causing the long-term damage to the Murray-Darling Basin,” Dr Close said. “It makes times of drought harder than they should be.”
But Environment Minister David Speirs said the Murray-Darling Basin Plan put SA in a better position than when the state experienced the Millennium Drought.
“What the plan is doing is delivering environmental water and resilience in the river like we’ve never seen before,” he said. “My message to Susan Close would be stop trying to blow up the plan because it’s all South Australia has.”
He said the 500GL included water carried over from the 2018-19 water year, so it could have been worse.
“I’m pretty pleased with the overall health of the river at this stage,” Mr Speirs said. “I would be worried if we had another year of low inflows.”
The Murray-Darling Basin Authority Environmental Watering Priorities report released this week focuses on trying to avoid irreversible impacts on vegetation, fish, waterbirds and the sites that sustain them.
Temperatures have been above average for the past six years and storage levels in the southern Basin are the lowest in three years, while storage levels in the northern Basin are lower than at any point during the Millennium Drought.