News

Council to advocate for water reform in NSW

By Darren Linton

Mar 16, 2022

Anguish: Cr Geoff Dobson spoke of people crying over their experience in 2019 when up to a million fish died in the Darling River system in far western NSW (AAP Image/Supplied, Kate McBride) Photo by Contributed

Greater Shepparton City Council will write to the NSW Minister for Lands and Water to advocate for regulation of flood plain harvesting.

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At the urging of Cr Geoff Dobson, who also chairs the Murray Darling Association, councillors voted unanimously at the March 15 meeting to advocate directly on the issue of water management in the northern basin.

The advocacy will include incorporating the NSW Parliament’s Upper House reforms to modify the volume of offtake and the licensing of unpermitted dams.

Cr Dobson said the heavy lifting needed to be shared across the basin.

“The GMID (Goulburn Murray Irrigation District) has done its part in delivering water efficiencies to the whole of the Murray Darling Basin,” he said.

Cr Dobson said offtakes in parts of NSW were unmetered and floodplain harvesting allowed landowners to take water from streams and divert it to big storage areas.

“Some have never had planning approval given,” he told council.

“The government is talking about metering those offtakes at the same level as they are now, we say it is too much.

“This council can take a leadership role in supporting more flows down the Darling River.”