Lined catchments offered as solution to Coorong water crisis
Lined catchments offered as solution to Coorong water crisis
Property owners Harry Angus and Mark Scobie, Primary Industries and Regional Development Minister Tim Whetstone and Coorong council chief executive officer Vincent Cammell hope lined catchments will offer a way forward.
Lining catchments may be the best way for Coorong district farmers to escape cripplingly high water prices, the state government has advised.
Four lined catchments will be installed on properties at Salt Creek and Woods Well to demonstrate the approach, state MPs Tim Whetstone and Nick McBride announced on Friday.
The project will be carried out by the Coorong council at a cost to state taxpayers of $370,000.
Mr Whetstone said it was a smart investment that would give other local producers the confidence to invest in water harvesting on their own properties as an answer to their water security problems.
"This project has the ability to improve the viability of livestock production that currently depends on expensive mains water, and reduce spray drift and contamination (of) valued agricultural produce," he said.
Council chief executive officer Vincent Cammell thanked the state government for its support in an area in which it had taken great interest.
"The council is keen to promote uptake of water security technologies to livestock producers," he said.
"Their adoption will reduce the cost of doing business, keep livestock production income reinvested in our area and promote the expansion of the livestock industry in South Australia."
A weather station will also be installed on the Coorong as part of the project, and added to the NRM weather network of 84 stations across South Australia.
The closest stations at present are at Narrung, Roby (Yumali), Lewis (Coonalpyn) and Tintinara.
As well as providing standard forecasts for residents and tourists, the station will monitor rainfall, fire weather conditions and other variables upon which farmers depend.
The Coorong council and the farmers it represents had begun negotiating with SA Water for a bulk deal on water from the Tailem Bend to Keith pipeline in 2015, following a summit organised by The Murray Valley Standard.
But their hopes were dashed in 2017, when SA Water ruled demand for a local water scheme was not great enough to make it feasible.
Since then, producers have courted allsides of politics in an effort to find a solution, whether it comes through funding linked to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan or a reduction in SA Water prices statewide.