The Border region is facing the worst flooding in more than 60 years and government decisions to store vast amounts of water without consulting farmers along the Murray River could exacerbate the disaster, a water management group says.
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Speak Up Campaign deputy chairman Lloyd Polkinghorne said farmers were frustrated at being ignored and called for an "overarching review" into the region's water management including the Hume and Dartmouth dams.
"We're looking at potentially the worst flooding in 50 or 60 years with the dams as full as they are, the catchments as wet as they are," Mr Polkinghorne said. "A lot of the water has yet to run off, and we still have plenty of snow to melt.
"You only need one good rain again and this could be as bad as the flood in 1956.
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"When it comes to the huge dam volumes, we need a review of what those volumes are made up of."
Mr Polkinghorne cited the announcement by Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek to buy 450 gigalitres "to save the environment" without revealing where it was to be stored, and said the level of stored purchased water could influence dam releases.
"We've currently got Tanya Plibersek, the environment and water minister, talking about buying back more water for the environment," Mr Polkinghorne said.
"There's 450 gigalitres she wants to buy back and they say it's going to save the environment. But they don't talk about where they're going to store it or where they're going to use it."
"So we're already seeing our dams very full of carry-over water.
"Australia has a $2 billion annual water trading system that is completely unregulated - you don't need an ABN to trade water. If I was a banker in the USA, I could buy an allocation off an Australian farmer and then I could hold that water and hedge my bets that the water price will go up if there's a dry season and farmers need the water."
Ms Plebersek last month held a forum in Albury to address the national conference of the Murray Darling Association, but failed to answer the question when asked by a mayor where the 450 gigalitres would come from. "We've been approached by proponents of different things that will deliver on some of that 450, but I'm not going to pretend its easy," she said.
Mr Polkinghorne said unpredictable flows in the Murray River had also caused massive erosion at a site near the town of Gunbower.
He said photographic records showed large chunks of land on both sides of the river were being lost.
"Photos taken at Masters Landing between 2020 and 2022 show there is less than one metre left between the edge of the bank and the post and rail fence at Masters House," he said.
"What will it take for the Murray-Darling Basin Authority or the new Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek to acknowledge a river system is not a drain, and historical water distribution was there for a reason?"
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