Murray Darling warning Letters

The editorial in Thursday’s TB stated that the new Regional Water Assessment (RWA) for the Burdekin was something that “was long overdue”. In fact, that was very much the atmosphere in the room of three regional mayors, Sunwater executives, Burdekin irrigators and sugarcane farmers, and others at The Ville when this was announced on Wed.

In 1998 when the Burdekin Falls Dam was built, there seemed to be such an abundance of water, that the Burdekin Basin Water Plan (BBWP), which divvies up the water (who gets what), was not formulated until 2007. That was at that time, a 10yr plan.

It has been extended in its present form several times, with the process to renew it initiated just last month. This will be a two-year process to engage with stakeholders and users, (including TCC) to be completed by 2025.

The situation facing the Burdekin and its water is now very different from when the 2007 plan was made. As well as the proposals for four additional dams and weirs on the Burdekin, we now have new industrial demands for water, notably including hydrogen production.

This is all happening when surface water in the region will fall by at least 15 per cent, and evaporation rates will increase to over 20 per cent by 2070.

The RWA is not a ‘plan’ as such, but to provide a framework within which plans can be made. Its development will run in parallel to the BBWP, to assess the status of the catchment, emerging demands on water and options for its use.

Ensuring water is used efficiently will be a new and important consideration.

No one wants a Murray Darling scenario for the Burdekin. If all the proposed dams for the Burdekin were built, (and they were all promised ahead of the 2022 election), the river would end up in a pretty sick state, and with no benefit to those would have gone ahead and invested in ventures that would have depended on reliable water.

So yes, while it might seem to us that there has been back and forth on approvals for different dams, having had an RWA already in place, would arguably have avoided unrealistic proposals for dams being made in the first place. Along with that, that would have saved wasting many, many tens of millions of our dollars being spent on unnecessary Feasibility and Business Case Studies.

So all in all, the broad range of stakeholders who were at The Ville welcomed the Burdekin RWA to guide management and future development across the basin and its neighbouring Great Barrier Reef lagoon.