Snowy River cops it yet again…
The politics of returning water to the Snowy River for environmental flows are as tangled and intractable as the weeds and blackberry bushes that are sprouting in the dry river bed that is all that’s left of this once mighty river.
In the latest twist in a long and sorry saga, the NSW government has refused to change the conditions of the licence that allows Snowy Hydro to divert the river’s headwaters westward for electricity generation and irrigation. Once again, an opportunity to increase environmental flows down the river has been missed.
The process to return water to the Snowy began in a blaze of glory in 2002 when the Commonwealth, NSW and Victorian governments signed an agreement for a staged increase in environmental flows. The target for 2009 was 15 percent of average natural flows, but despite millions of dollars of investment in water recovery, the Snowy is languishing on four percent of natural flows, pretty much where it was before the agreement was signed.
So what has gone wrong?
The short answer is endless delay and procrastination, particularly on the part of the NSW government. The review of Snowy Hydro’s water licence was over two years late and the NSW government completely ignored the advice of its own Snowy Scientific Committee, which said river health was continuing to decline and recommended significant changes to the flow regime. The Scientific Committee itself experienced a five and a half year delay in its appointment.
The Snowy River Alliance, a coalition of community groups that has campaigned long and hard for flows for the Snowy, is understandably furious. They have set up a petition to the NSW Minister for Water, asking him to take immediate action to change the conditions of the Snowy Water Licence to allow water to flow down the river as agreed in 2002.
For more on the NSW government position’ see Crikey.
