MEDIA RELEASE
Monday 5th September 2022
People for A Living Moorabool welcomed the release of the Central and Gippsland Sustainable Water Strategy announced by the Premier Daniel Andrews and Water Minister Harriet Shing today.
“This has been a long process but one which will hopefully relieve some of the stresses on the Moorabool River.” PALM’s coordinator Cameron Steele said today.
The Strategy is a high-level document providing plans for Victoria’s water future. It contains actions which will directly impact Victoria’s most flow stressed river.
“These are absolutely vital measures to help a river which has lost a further 20% of its inflows due to climate change over the last 15 years” Mr Steele said. “It really is a race against time to halt the decline of this magnificent river and it is heartening to finally have that urgency recognised by both Government and our water authorities. But it is still a long way from the 17,000ML required to secure a healthy future for this river.”
An upgrade of the Melbourne Geelong Pipeline will see the long-term average equivalent of 3000ML of water transferred from Barwon Water’s share of the Lal Lal Reservoir . A further 700ML from the Bostock Reservoir will assist the East Moorabool in a shared arrangement with the Wadawurrung and the environment.
Other measures announced include a study into the impact of small catchment dams in the Moorabool and Maribyrnong rivers. The Moorabool River Catchment has one of the highest volumes of water impounded in farm and commercial dams compared to its inflows and this has a direct impact on the health of the river.
“We have seen a dramatic acceleration in the construction of commercial and smaller catchment dams over the last three years eroding environmental flows gained for the river. This must be addressed otherwise we are simply giving with one hand and taking with another, something which is utterly unsustainable.” Mr Steele said.
An investigation into the rewatering of a Durdidwarrah wetland in the Brisbane Ranges NP was also included. PALM would like to acknowledge the efforts of Wadawurrung man Barry Gilson in helping to secure this action.
End Release
Link to final CGRSWS: https://www.water.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0022/594004/20220902_CentralGippslandRegion_SWS_Final_compressed.pdf
Link to Premier’s release:
https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/delivering-water-security-our-future
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