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The Victorian and News South Wales Premiers will meet in
Jindabyne today to announce money to restore 21 per cent flows to the
Snowy River.
Premiers Steve Bracks and Bob Carr are expected to
announce $300 million to repair inefficient irrigations systems.
Water savings would be diverted to the Snowy River to bring flows
up to 21 per cent.
The deal is a compromise, but it is believed the
Snowy River Alliance will be happy with the decision.
Gippsland
East Independent Craig Ingram has been pushing for a 28 per cent increase
but it is tipped he will also settle for the compromise deal.
The
proposal still has to gain the approval of the Federal Government before
proceeding.
Reaction
The agreement has won the
support of the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF).
However,
the ACF's Tim Fisher says the environmental movement will be monitoring
authorities to ensure the flow increases as soon as
possible.
"We'll have to be vigilant to ensure that things can come
into place very quickly indeed," he said.
"We're confident that we
can get that done largely within a few years."
The director of the
Total Environment Centre in Sydney Geoff Angel says the Snowy River deal
will have positive environmental impacts on other regions of New South
Wales and Victoria.
"The hydro and irrigation scheme itself was an
inefficient engineering solution," he said.
"By making everything
more efficient we end up making irrigation more sustainable and we also
obtain through that process water that we can return back to the
Snowy.
"A very significant part of this decision is not only about
saving the Snowy but making the irrigation districts more efficient users
of water, and that has associated important environmental benefits."
Cheers
Peter Waanders
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