The plan to consolidate how we control and manage the nation's water resources, and treat the issues and associated problems as a national necessity, is long overdue and has been discussed over many years.
The Howard plan, although late in conception, was very timely as the nation's worst drought on record really started to identify the failings in the current state managed systems.
Is it too little too late? It is never too late if the problem has not been solved, and solved it needs to be.
Victoria has not been the only stumbling block in the delays to have processes within the plan implemented, and history will record the impasses presented by all the stakeholders.
So as of March 27 we are told that actions will speak louder than words and we need to trust the COAG decision to have the memorandum of understanding signed off by COAG in July 2008.
This will not result in the freeing up of any water in the next few months, unless by some freak of nature it decides to rain in the catchment, where it can be stored and allowed to run free - as soon as there is sufficient volume to fill the empty spaces that currently exist along the entire length of the Murray and into the lower lakes.
There are many infrastructure projects already on the drawing board ready to be funded and construction to begin, so that when water is again abundant then the savings in improved efficiencies can be released to flow down the entire system.
Some environmental water has been purchased from willing sellers and more is on the way but under the current restrictions that exist these transfers from the private to public sector will not be seen until our climate patterns provide a great deal more precipitation. At least we will know that there is some water in the system for the environment when that change in the weather does occur.
As in all such proposals, there will at least two more years of pain with more permanent plantings wilting and dying and many landowners having to exit their properties to earn a living another way.
Should the states agree that rain-enhancement may be a means to some immediate relief, by allowing the Snowy Hydro Authority the rights to expand their current cloud seeding program, then that, in the short term could deliver some relief, and offset the "critical human needs" essential for the inland rural communities to survive.
The mechanisms in Canberra, regardless of how quickly they will move, will not change, cannot change, the immediate plight of the irrigation farmers' needs, nor that of the lower lakes until they have water in the system to move about.
The new national Murray Darling Basin Authority will want to be seen as being effective as quickly as possible but their hands will be tied by the weather patterns, and if those patterns are unfavourable, then how do they get enough water to make the rivers run?
The MOU does state that the "current state water shares as defined by the Murray Darling Basin Agreement and subsequent MDB Ministerial and MDBC decisions, will be preserved unless otherwise agreed by all signatories of this MOU".
This, if I translate it correctly, means no immediate changes to the status quo unless there is a massive showing of compassion on the part of the majority of the players.
They say that patience is a virtue, but this will not resolve the current dilemma facing the administrators of our meagre water reserves, and it will not change the needs of our farming communities and the supporting commercial infrastructure in the towns servicing those communities.
We keep hearing we can't make it rain, but we know that we can assist those rain-bearing clouds to dump that extra moisture which invariably ends up over the Pacific Ocean. If anyone has a better suggestion at present I would like to hear it.
All the necessary key elements within the plan seem to be listed in the communiqués. Progress can and will be made to right this terrible situation.
My fear is that there is still more pain to come before the operation can be considered successful, and time is not on the side of the patient.
Source: By Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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