Building Resilient Futures With Less Water

This opinion piece by Professor John Williams explores the need for structural adjustment to be considered as part of the integrated policy response for dealing with over-allocated water systems. Williams is an Adjunct Professor of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Charles Sturt University, a Founding Member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists , former Chief CSIRO Land and Water, and currently Commissioner for Natural Resources in New South Wales.

Regional Communities Can Build Resilient Futures with Less Water: But They Will Need Help

The current crisis in the Murray-Darling Basin provides the best opportunity since Federation for Australians to work together to rebuild our Murray-Darling heartland resulting in more resilient communities and healthier rivers.

We must accept that we have a future with less water and a system which is currently over allocated. To deal with this we will need a well balanced three legged stool approach to water reform.

Currently we have only two legs, buy-back and infrastructure improvement to lift efficiency. Without the third leg of support to help regional communities plan for a future with less water and structurally adjust, the stool will fall over.

From what I observe this third leg is currently missing, our communities are being expected to make these huge adjustments with little support from government. Australian society as a whole has played a role in the development of this catastrophe through our government's over-allocation of water extraction from our rivers and groundwater.

It seems only fair that we all take responsible action to assist our communities to make the required adjustment so that water extraction is in line with capacity of the rivers and groundwater. Ultimately this will give us all an assurance of a more sustainable future. For communities to begin to shape futures it is so important that there is honesty and transparency in the magnitude of the reduction in water extraction that is compatible with a healthy Murray-Darling. I am not sure that this has been done.

Sure $3.7Billion has been set aside for water buy-back. At current prices this amounts to roughly 2,500GL. The work of the Wentworth group in its recent submission to the Senate enquiry showed that if we are to maintain healthy rivers and provide high quality water to produce food, we need to return over 4,000 GL of water to the rivers in periods of average flow. This will result in the consumptive use of water across the Murray Darling Basin having to be cut by between 42 and 53 percent. The magnitude of the adjustment is massive - beyond anything that has been contemplated before in the Australian community.

Most regional cities, towns and communities within the Murray Darling Basin face massive social and economic impacts of a water reform agenda designed to improve the health of over-allocated rivers and groundwater. This upheaval comes at a time of severe drought and against a backdrop of climate change. Communities are faced with making tough and painful decisions. There is evidence that regional communities and industry are actively taking responsibility for planning to live with less water and accept the need to return water to the river.

But I see much evidence that they need help. Certainly the government buy-back of water allocations and entitlements is a critical part of the solution as is the government investment in water and irrigation infrastructure.

But from what I see there is an urgent need to bring together these two elements in the water reform agenda with third element involving a strong focus and commitment to community and industry planning as part of a package for regional development. From what I can determine the governments have put some $13billion on the table to address water reform in the Murray Darling basin.

When has there been a better opportunity to see this investment as a key plank in the regional development and rebuilding, revitalisation of the communities of the Murray Darling. It is a magnificent opportunity. Can we not give a focus to supporting, facilitating and resourcing our communities and industries with the means to think, imagine, plan and implement better futures with something like 60% of the current water extraction entitlement? Community development seeks to empower individuals and groups of people by providing the skills they need to effect change in their own communities.

These skills are often concentrated around building social cohesion through the formation of large social groups working for a common agenda. I see instead evidence of social fracture and in some instance actions which precipitate communities to resort to tribe against tribe.

We must support regional communities in a number of different ways to help them plan for a future with less water and provide the structural adjustment support that will be required. The impact of this prolonged drought makes it inevitable that there will be structural adjustment in the Murray-Darling Basin, whether or not inflows return to what has been regarded as a "normal" pattern.

Many small businesses in irrigation districts are reconsidering their future, some are taking the plunge, but many will move slowly out of fear of change. History suggests that most attempts to impede autonomous adjustment backfire. Often the most significant adverse impacts are on the capacity of the most talented in a district or an industry to innovate. Structural adjustment can be done very well or very badly.

Small dollops of taxpayers funds skilfully applied to target areas where needed can greatly speed up adjustment processes, especially if there are substantial public benefits at stake. The whole water reform packaged could be seen as an opportunity for major regional development based around community assistance for planning, building new futures and making the necessary structural adjustment. With this focus the most effective use can then be made of water buy-back coupled with investment in infrastructure and on farm innovation to drive water use efficiency.

Putting focus on community development and the assistance required by communities who are faced with major change and adjustment could turn the current crisis into a way in which Australians worked together to rebuild our Murray Darling heartland resulting in more resilient communities and healthier rivers.