Hume, Eildon May Be Empty By April

The Age

Thursday December 7, 2006

RACHEL KLEINMAN

VICTORIA'S Lake Hume and Lake Eildon may be empty by April, a Melbourne water expert has predicted.

And the Murray-Darling's latest drought update predicted the basin's "big three" - Dartmouth, Hume and Lake Victoria - faced very low stores by the end of May.

Melbourne University water expert John Langford said Hume (7 per cent full) and Eildon (15 per cent full) faced zero storages if the forecast for a dry, hot summer was realised.

Eildon's previous record low was 8.5 per cent during the 2002-03 drought.

Lake Hume, on the Murray River east of Albury-Wodonga, and Lake Eildon in the Central Highlands, primarily serve irrigators.

Although the irrigation season will largely be over by April, the dire projection casts doubt on the dams' capacity to replenish for next year.

The Victorian Farmers Federation's water resources committee chairman, Richard Anderson, said next year was already shaping up to be a tough year.

Professor Langford made his prediction yesterday at a Melbourne University forum on the politics of water use, featuring scientists, environmentalists and water bureaucrats.

Mr Anderson, who spoke at the forum, said farmers were unfairly targeted.

"They are told they waste too much water but it is not in their best interests to waste it," he said.

"There are ways to get governments to invest in infrastructure to reduce wastages For example, Goulburn Murray Water loses 400 to 800 gigalitres a year through seepage and evaporation - the same as the whole annual supply to Melbourne.

"What a lot of people don't seem to realise is that if the irrigators don't have water, none of us would have food on the table."

Meanwhile, the Murray Darling Basin Commission's December drought update, published yesterday, said the Murray River's operation remained "on a knife edge".

The report revealed that if 2006-07 conditions were repeated, deemed statistically unlikely, it could be a challenge to sustain flows for the full length of the river.

Access to water from the river could be at risk in some towns, particularly those supplied via irrigation channels, the report said.

Reducing minimum flow targets and temporarily disconnecting Lake Victoria were options being considered.

NSW and South Australia had significantly reduced water allocations, by 32 per cent and 20 per cent respectively, but Victoria, which had taken a different approach, had retained its Murray River allocation at 95 per cent.

© 2006 The Age

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