Saying NO to water buy backs – a “curse” on the region

A joint statement from six shire councils, including Bourke, protested strongly against water buy backs by featuring in several newspapers last weekend.
“Our river runs dry when it doesn’t rain up here. The farmers have no water then either, so buy backs won’t make the river flow. But in the good times, buybacks mean less production and the impact goes well beyond the farm gate. Further water reductions will curse this region, entrenching already high levels of social disadvantage.”
These were the words of Bourke Shire Mayor, Barry Hollman, who joined fellow mayors from Leeton, Griffith, Moree Plains, Carrathool, and Balonne to request government looks beyond water buy backs to improve the river system.
“It’s so important that we don’t have further buy backs within our valley,” Bourke Shire Council General Manager, Leonie Brown said.
“The impacts on our community from previous water buy backs has been significant and we feel that there are different ways that the government needs to look at implementing the Murray Darling Basin Plan in full and buy backs are not the answer.”
Mrs Brown said focussing on infrastructure and getting water into the system is the highest priority, incorporating things such as bigger dams to be able to put water into our local system. She also said buy backs in the local region will make little difference to South Australia’s Coorong which has been a focus.
“Water buy backs from this valley will make very little difference to the Coorong because it must rain to have water in the system. The plan was implemented in 2012 – it has worked well during the times that we were dry - but there’s been no testing done on that. Now suddenly, we’re told we need to put this water into the Coorong.” […]
Read more in the printed edition of The Western Herald.
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