At the Summit on the Murray-Darling Basin on 7 November 2006, the Prime Minister and the premiers of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia asked officials to examine contingency planning to secure urban water supplies during 2007-08.
The December 2006 Contingency Planning Report highlighted the extent of record low inflows into the Murray-Darling Basin in 2006 and recommended a series of measures that would secure domestic water supply for communities relying on basin water, should dry conditions persist in 2007-08. The recommendations of the original report were agreed by the Acting Prime Minister, the Hon Mark Vaile MP, and the premiers of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.
A second report by senior officials provides an update to the contingency planning work.
Inflows in the Murray-Darling Basin have continued to set new record lows in recent months. In over 100 years of streamflow and rainfall records, the key Murray-Darling Basin headwater catchments have never been as dry as this. Whilst there has been near average rainfall in February and March 2007 and Bureau of Meteorology advises that the El Nino event is finished, catchments remain extremely dry. Dry catchments have led to inflows continuing to be low, with inflows in February and March 2007 being the lowest ever recorded.
The headwater catchments of the River Murray have received the lowest rainfall on record from January 2006 to February 2007. Due to the extremely dry condition of these headwater catchments, which normally generate half of the total inflow to the River Murray, inflows are likely to recover only slowly even if rainfall is average to above average over the next few months. The water situation remains critical and contingency planning will need to continue through 2007-08, even if conditions improve during the highest inflow months of September and October 2007.
The situation out to May 2008 is sufficiently critical that State water sharing under the Murray-Darling Basin Agreement should be modified as a matter of urgency. It is proposed that the quantities of water currently in storage and estimated to be available in 2007-08 based on the minimum inflow scenario, be first allocated for critical human water consumption needs. This will enable core critical demand to be met most effectively. It will also ensure appropriate management of water in storages this water year by giving a greater degree of certainty to jurisdictions.
Unless there are very substantial inflows prior to mid May 2007, there will be insufficient water available to allow any allocation for irrigation (including of high security water and water carried over from 2006-07), the environment or any purpose other than urban and stock and domestic supplies for human consumption at the normal commencement of the 2007-08 irrigation season.
First Ministers have agreed to coordinate efforts to ensure farmers have access to information about water supplies and their implications for allocation decisions at critical decision making times for business planning. Further, they have agreed to keep allocation decisions under review to ensure that the impacts on the irrigation sector are minimised given the likelihood that allocations in 2007-08 will not be sufficient to avoid losses of income and assets.
One of the recommendations of the December Contingency Planning Report was that