Connections Project water to help northern Victoria irrigators

NORTHERN Victorian irrigators are expected to have access to 37 gigalitres of water as early as this week.

The water — owned by Melbourne’s metropolitan water retailers — is held against the city’s retail water corporations’ share of water savings in the $2 billion Goulburn Murray Water (GMW) Connections Project and is released annually after an audit of the year’s water savings.

Water Minister Lisa Neville said she had asked for the audit process to be fast-tracked to ensure irrigators had access to the water “as soon as possible”.

“Ever since I’ve been minister, I’ve made it my mission to ensure as much water as possible is available to northern irrigators and in this instance, I asked for the (Connections Project) water to be fast-tracked to help out those doing it tough in these dry conditions,” Ms Neville said.

“I hope this additional water on the market will help ease pressure on prices, which are severely impacting those exposed to the temporary market.”

Ms Neville said she had also asked the Victorian and Commonwealth environmental water holders to explore any opportunities for trading environmental water holdings into the market.

The latest Connections Project audit found it had achieved long-term water recovery of 378.07GL and was on track to deliver its target of 429GL — which will be shared among irrigators, retailers and the environment.

Last season the Victorian Environmental Water Holder sold 10,000 megalitres of allocation in northern Victoria, which provided an opportunity for irrigators completing autumn watering to secure more water or choose to carry over into the new season.

The GMW Connections Project is Australia’s largest irrigation modernisation project and is recovering water by creating a delivery system that boosts productivity, fosters healthy waterways and wetlands and aims to help communities thrive.

The project is jointly funded by the federal and Victorian governments.

“The Connections Project is a great example of how we can modernise our irrigation system and provide greater water certainty for Victorian communities in the years to come,” Ms Neville said.