PROJECTIONS for the 2020/21 water year have “significantly improved” since last month’s opening allocation announcement, with a senior local industry figure confident of Riverland growers and irrigators reaching 100 per cent.
The Department of Environment and Water (DEW) last week released an updated eight per cent allocation figure for Riverland growers and irrigators, improving on the initial two per cent announced in April.
Central Irrigation Trust chief executive officer Gavin McMahon said the figure reflected above-average rainfall experienced recently across River Murray catchments.
“Things are all moving in the right direction,” Mr McMahon said.
“There’s been improvements in storages, the catchments are all pretty wet and there’s rain falling across the catchment.
“If you look at the BoM forecast for the next three months it’s quite good. It’s above-average rainfall.
“That should generate pretty good run-off, because the catchments are already wet. The largest run-off events really occur in spring.”
Mr McMahon said based on current storages and projected rainfall, irrigators were similarly positioned to the same stage in 2019.
“The advice from the government was upbeat in terms of overall allocations, so I think people can look forward to the coming year with a bit of confidence to be honest,” he said.
“When we have a look at everything that’s announced to date, we’re probably no worse off than this time last year.”
DEW River Murray water delivery manager Jarrod Eaton said “average inflow conditions” over the next six months would still see SA River Murray irrigators reach full allocations.
“This is a positive turnaround compared to the dry and warm conditions observed in previous months,” Mr Eaton said
“In thinking about water availability for 2020/21, irrigators are strongly encouraged to take into account the range of probability scenarios for potential allocation improvements… rather than focusing on the projected worst-case minimum allocation.
“The worst-case minimum (eight per cent) is based on storage levels at the end of April.
“This is inherently conservative and is adopted to minimise the risk of allocations going backwards.”
Mr McMahon advised Riverland irrigators with extra water available on their accounts to utilise market options that were still available.
“Everybody’s looking at what they do if they have excess water,” Mr McMahon said.
“There are a number of options, but that’s certainly getting more and more difficult to deal with.
“The price (of) water has gone down and there’s less storage in Victoria available.
“If you do want to do something about excess water, it’s probably opportune to do that sooner rather than later.”
The next allocation update for SA Murray irrigators will be provided by DEW on June 15.