DELIVERING required water savings and maximising the system’s efficiency is the preferred ‘reset’ option for the troubled Goulburn-Murray Water Connections Project.
The $2 billion system modernisation project, which upgrades century-old irrigation infrastructure and aims to save water that’s handed back to the environment, was stalled after an independent body found that fundamental changes were required to deliver the project within budget and achieve the required water savings.
The mid-term review found the assumptions underpinning the project were no longer appropriate. It was assumed about 3000 landowners would choose to leave irrigated agriculture by terminating 45 per cent of delivery share in the Goulburn Murray Irrigation District, but the review found that only 14 per cent, or about 1000 landowners, were likely to terminate.
The review also found there less time has been available to deliver the project; securing landowner agreements has been more complex and the availability of suitably qualified resources in the GMID had been more challenging.
The rural water supplier was stripped of its management of the project as a result, and a Project Control Group established after the Commonwealth and Victorian governments admitted the project would run out of time and money if it continued.
The Connections Project must deliver 429 gigalitres of water savings, which contributes to Victoria’s overall obligations toward the Murray Darling Basin Plan.
Half the promised water savings are still to be found and more than $1.2 billion already spent, with $338 million of uncommitted funds remaining to complete the chaotic project.
Four options for the uncommitted works have been identified, which were viewed and commented on by close to 50 people at one of about a dozen community consultation sessions across northern Victoria last Thursday.
The Project Control Group’s preferred option will see a combination of all options, where individual connections would be tailored explicitly for the conditions and attributes of each channel.
During a roundtable discussion, district irrigators emphatically supported the preferred option, which incorporates local knowledge.
Project Control Group chairman, Mike Walsh said the individual connections would be tailored explicitly for the conditions and attributes of each channel.
